Hailing India’s economic growth journey, the Chief Economist for South Asia at World Bank, Franziska Ohnsorge, citied two assumptions for women and said if these come true, then India’s GDP could be one half higher.
Franziska was speaking at a discussion on “Working Women: Policy Options to Raise Female Employment in India” organised by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), in collaboration with the World Bank.
“In India, if two assumptions are made, first the women work at as productive jobs as men, and second the financial markets are flexible to generate the financing need for investments, and if these assumptions come true, then India’s GDP could be one half higher,” she said.
She highlighted that in the South Asian market, the share of women in services sector is much lower as compared to non-services sector.
“South Asia is developing much faster than any of the other developing economies globally, much because of India,” she said.
Calling South Asia, particularly India, a bright spot, she said growth could be much higher if the untapped potential is unlocked.
Increased labour demand a low-hanging fruit
The Chief Economist at the World Bank said the increased labour demand is one of the low-hanging fruits in terms of opportunities for women. “Female employment is much larger in the export oriented industry than others.”
She called for encouraging remote working opportunities, ensuring safety at workplaces, enforcement of gender-equal laws and favourable social norms for women working outside their homes.
Faster job creation not enough mindset needs to be changed
Dr. Anuradha Guru, Economic Adviser, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance said faster job creation alone won’t solve the problem of low Female Labour Force participation (FLFP). There is a need for change in the mindset of women population.
“Women themselves need to change their mindset that caring for the family is not the only job they have. It is one of the important jobs, but not the only one,” she said.
In order to push women into the workforce, there is a need to deplete the wage gap, and create an ecosystem for skilling and training services, she said.
“There is a culmination of a number of factors like Ease of Doing Business for women, Ease of Mobility, safety which will add to the ecosystem for the women to come out and join the workforce,” she believed.
Now, all-men MPC to decide repo rate
NCAER Director General Dr Poonam Gupta on the crisis over the participation of women workforce referred to the recently constituted Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
She said that all the three new RBI MPC members are men, and now six men will be deciding the policy rates showing lack of women participation in such a key area.
Dr Gupta added, “Given the enormity of the challenge and its persistence, a holistic gender strategy consisting of fiscal, administrative and regulatory measures besides public messaging is needed.”
