{"id":12270,"date":"2021-05-24T18:48:03","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T13:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/?p=12270"},"modified":"2023-04-07T11:08:53","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T05:38:53","slug":"lessons-for-india-can-from-bangladesh-about-closing-its-gender-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/lessons-for-india-can-from-bangladesh-about-closing-its-gender-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"LESSONS FOR INDIA CAN FROM BANGLADESH ABOUT CLOSING ITS GENDER GAP"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><strong>LESSONS FOR INDIA CAN FROM BANGLADESH ABOUT CLOSING ITS GENDER GAP<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: #ffff00;\"><strong>Relevance: <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: #ffff00;\"><strong>Sociology: Gender inequalities<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: #ffff00;\"><strong>G.S paper II: Governance<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Context<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Post-1971, Bangladesh embarked on an inclusive development strategy involving various non-government stakeholders, religious bodies and aid donors to promote women-centric development programmes; it is now reaping the rewards.<\/p>\n<p>India\u2019s eastern neighbour, Bangladesh, has recently garnered worldwide acclaim for its strides in human development. Among the indices that have shown improvement in the country is gender gap. It has reduced quite significantly in the recent past.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.insightsonindia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/global_gender.jpg\" alt=\"WEF's global gender gap report - INSIGHTSIAS\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Detailed Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This has been reflected in\u00a0the\u00a0<strong><em>Gender Gap<\/em><em>Report<\/em>\u00a0released by the World Economic Forum March 30, 2021.<\/strong> The report focuses on measuring gaps between men and women in accessing resources and opportunities.<\/li>\n<li>Bangladesh secured the 65<sup>th<\/sup>position in the overall tally\u00a0of the report.\u00a0 All other south Asian countries have ranks beyond 100.<\/li>\n<li>A thorough understanding of the sub-indices and indicators in the gender gap index will be helpful in fully comprehending Bangladesh\u2019s success in reducing\u00a0its gender gap.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is given in the table below:<\/p>\n<table width=\"100%\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Sub-indices<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>Economic participation<\/td>\n<td>Educational attainment<\/td>\n<td>Health and survival<\/td>\n<td>Political empowerment<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Indicators<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>Labour force participation rate; wage equality for similar work (on a 1\u20137 scale); estimated earned income; legislators, senior officials and managers; professional and technical workers<\/td>\n<td>Literacy rate; enrollment in primary education; enrollment in secondary education; enrollment in tertiary education.<\/td>\n<td>Sex ratio at birth; healthy life expectancy (years)<\/td>\n<td>Women in Parliament; women in ministerial positions; years with female head of state (in the last 50 years)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li>A total score of 1 in any sub-index means complete equality between men and women whereas 0 means complete inequality.<\/li>\n<li>In \u2018Educational attainment\u2019 and \u2018Health and survival\u2019, Bangladesh (0.951 and 0.962 respectively) has done more or less the same as its neighbouring countries. These are sub-indices where most countries have done well.<\/li>\n<li>In \u2018Economic participation\u2019, Bangladesh (0.418) has done better than its neighbours India (0.326) and Pakistan (0.316). However, in \u2018political empowerment\u2019, Bangladesh (0.546) is way ahead of its neighbours in south Asia such as India (0.276), Pakistan (0.154), Sri Lanka (0.167), Bhutan (0.82) or Nepal (0.241).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/photo\/imgsize-105874,msid-72880564\/72880564.jpg\" alt=\"How India lets down its women on health and jobs | India News - Times of India\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>India vs Bangladesh<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Let us understand\u00a0what contributed to this difference by comparing its data with India, which is generally perceived to be a more \u2018developed\u2019 country as compared to its neighbours in south Asia.<\/li>\n<li>In \u2018labour force participation\u2019, Bangladesh has a female-male ratio of 0.46 whereas India has a\u00a0female-male ratio of 0.28. On a 1-7 scale, the equality of wages between\u00a0men and\u00a0women for similar work in India is 3.38, whereas it is 4.09 in Bangladesh.<\/li>\n<li>In \u2018estimated earned income per capita\u2019, the\u00a0female-male ratio is 0.21 for India and 0.40\u00a0for Bangladesh. This means that as compared to India, more percentage of\u00a0women are participating in paid work in Bangladesh.<\/li>\n<li>Their wage is closer to the wage of Bangladeshi\u00a0men for similar work; and the relative contribution of\u00a0women workers in the Bangladeshi economy is more.<\/li>\n<li>However, India is in a slightly better position in terms of percentage of female workers taking senior positions (\u2018legislators, senior officials and managers\u2019).<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0female-male ratio for senior positions is 0.17 in India and 0.12 in Bangladesh. India (0.41) is also better in terms of\u00a0female-male ratio\u00a0for \u2018professional and technical work\u2019, as compared to Bangladesh (0.32).<\/li>\n<li>In \u2018political empowerment\u2019, the\u00a0female-male ratio for parliamentarians is more in Bangladesh (0.26) than the same in India (0.17). In \u2018ministerial positions\u2019, the ratio is 0.08 in Bangladesh and 0.1 in India. Bangladesh had reached equality (1) in terms of head of the state whereas India is at 0.45.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In health, Bangladesh has got a top rank (#1) in the world for \u2018sex ratio at birth\u2019, whereas India is in the 152<sup>nd<\/sup>\u00a0for that same indicator. In education, Bangladesh is much ahead in\u00a0female-male ratio in \u2018literacy rate\u2019, whereas India has done much better in enrolment in \u2018tertiary education\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/trak.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Gender-inequality-header.jpg\" alt=\"India May Lose Rs 46 Lakh Crore Due To Gender Inequality: McKinsey\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>In this example of comparison with India, Bangladesh may be seen doing better in seven indicators:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sex ratio at birth.<\/li>\n<li>Literacy rate.<\/li>\n<li>Labour force participation.<\/li>\n<li>Wage equality for similar work.<\/li>\n<li>Estimated earned income.<\/li>\n<li>Women in parliament.<\/li>\n<li>Women as head of the state.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>On the other hand, India may be seen doing better in four indicators:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Senior position jobs.<\/li>\n<li>Technical and professional workers.<\/li>\n<li>Enrolment in tertiary level education.<\/li>\n<li>Women in ministerial positions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is interesting to note that some of the seven indicators in which Bangladesh has done better are quite basic in nature. This is in the sense that they will lead to further positive changes in many other aspects. Also, changes in these areas need a much more concerted effort and consensus from different stakeholders.<\/p>\n<p>The positive changes in sex ratio, literacy rate, labour force participation and wage equality have created the potential to lead to more positive changes in the future in many other aspects. Changes in these areas needed consensus of the elite sections, government and non-government actors and religious leaders.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why Bangladesh?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Naomi Hussain, in her essay\u00a0<em>The SDGs and the Empowerment of Bangladeshi Women,\u00a0<\/em>explored\u00a0how Bangladesh stands out in terms of gender equality. <\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The relatively rapid improvements in the lives of Bangladeshi women have been possible because of a strong elite commitment and increasing state capacity to reach women in the development process.<\/li>\n<li>According to her, after a series of crises post the country\u2019s 1971 liberation war, the elites in Bangladesh reached a consensus to develop better relationships with international donor agencies to take their support in rebuilding the country.<\/li>\n<li>The elites accepted the agencies\u2019 conditions and priorities such as women-focused developmental programmes.<\/li>\n<li>From the 1990s, this resulted in a rising number of girls\u2019 enrolment in schools, women receiving health care and other services and women in paid work in export factories or self-employment through micro-credit schemes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Hussain also mentions that laws, policies and programmes to protect women and children against violence and to protect the most vulnerable from hunger and poverty were passed and implemented. Women played a growing role in politics through quotas and reservations and they were employed in increasing numbers by the state, including as teachers, health workers, administrators and the police.<\/p>\n<p>A strong commitment from the elites, support from donor agencies and involvement of non-government stakeholders in framing the development strategy helped keep women in the forefront of the development process. This is an interesting journey to learn from.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LESSONS FOR INDIA CAN FROM BANGLADESH ABOUT CLOSING ITS GENDER GAP Relevance: Sociology: Gender inequalities G.S paper II: Governance Context<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1033,18,114,1030,1029,1028,1032,1026,115,116,1034,1027,1031],"tags":[1983,1992,1986,1987,1984,1729,1988,1985,1696,1990,1989,1995,540,1998,1996,1997,1991,1994,1993],"class_list":["post-12270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-optional-sociology","category-general-studies-ii","category-sociology-optional","category-sociology-civils","category-sociology-ias","category-sociology-mains","category-sociology-mains-ias","category-sociology-optional-sociology-optional","category-sociology-optional-paper-i","category-sociology-optional-paper-ii","category-sociology-scoring-optional","category-sociology-upsc","category-sociology-upsc-mains","tag-bangladesh","tag-earned-income","tag-economic-participation","tag-educational-attainment","tag-gender-gap","tag-governance","tag-health-and-survival","tag-human-development","tag-india","tag-labour-force-participation","tag-political-empowerment","tag-senior-positions","tag-sociology","tag-south-asia","tag-technical-and-professional-workers","tag-tertiary-education","tag-wage-equality","tag-women-as-head-of-state","tag-women-in-parliament"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12270"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13636,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12270\/revisions\/13636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}