Introduction - TIS Eagles · birth of males more than females without gender discrimination involved, India’s high ratio is quite notable in the international community and is highly

TIANMUN 2019 Advisory Panel –

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FORUM: Advisory Panel

ISSUE: Reducing Gender Inequality in India

STUDENT OFFICER: Jane Eun Woo Lee

POSITION: President of Advisory Panel

Introduction

Long since a worldwide issue, gender inequality can be defined as the inequality in treating people

or in perceptions towards them solely based upon their gender, the gender here normally referring to the

binary classification of male and female. Gender inequality in India, like that of many other nations,

largely arises from cultural influences, the most prominent of which is the patriarchal system.

Despite the controversy surrounding some international gender inequality indices, it is evident that

women are largely placed at a disadvantage in India. According to India’s 2011 census, the gender ratio

in India was reported to be 943 females for every 1000 males, and the literacy rate of females, at 65.46

percent, gravely falls short to the male literacy rate of 82.14 percent. With sons often being preferred over

daughters, female infanticide and female foeticide rates are on the rise. Women are also abused in terms

of wage rates, household treatments, and dowry payments.

Contrary to many nations dealing with similar problems, India is facing more facets than simply

the discrimination of women; some, including the recently arisen men’s rights activists, believe that men

are also discriminated against on certain occasions, particularly in some parts of the Indian law.

Background

Gender inequality is a problem linked to essentially all

parts of the world. The natural biological and psychological

differences existing between the two sexes have been, over the

millennia, overly misinterpreted and rooted deeply in those

forms into cultures around the world. Due to the rise of recognition regarding the importance of

preserving human rights as well as a renewed understanding about the two sexes divergent from the

traditional norms, efforts in trying to reduce gender inequality have been intensifying in recent decades,

the most representative being feminism. While almost no cultures at hand are completely free from an

imbalanced societal treatment of the genders, with the World Economic Forum (WEF) predicting the

The Global Gender Imbalance in Comparison

to India’s


2

gender gap to be closed in none less than 170 more years, some regions show a significantly more

aggravated situation of the problem than others. One of these cases could be seen in India.

As often is the case, the current situation of gender inequality within India differs among its

regions and classes, people standing in different positions and locations undergoing different experiences.

However, overall, India experiences problems similar to that of multiple other Asian countries – concisely

speaking, cultural norms and traditions that have arisen as a result of the patriarchal system and a

preference for boys. In India, sons are often more wanted than daughters because they are considered

more “useful,” particularly after the parents have reached old age. This leads to the prioritization of food,

education opportunities, and medical services given to boys over girls, and also accounts for India’s

skewed sex ratio at birth and in its under-5 mortality rate (U5MR). Naturally, job opportunities and wages

are statistically lower for women, and their treatment in the household is a major problem as well. There

would be various specific methods that could be employed to better the problem, but the ultimate solution

and goal is a change of perception regarding genders.

Problems Raised

Female Infanticide & Foeticide

India, along with China, has long since been suspected to be largely responsible for the world’s

female deficit. The traditions of patrilineality and patrilocality, along with a preference for sons, have led

to very skewed sex ratios despite sex determination being outlawed. Such skewed ratios also correspond

to overly common female infanticide and foeticide. The Population Research Institute reports that more

than 11 million females are missing due to sex-selective abortion.

In India, there are about 107 boys born for every 100 girls. The Economic Survey 2017-18 cites

its sex ratio at birth in 2014 to be nearly 1.11 (boys per every girl). Although nature slightly favors the

birth of males more than females without gender discrimination

involved, India’s high ratio is quite notable in the international

community and is highly suggestive of female foeticide. The

Population Research Institute in February 2018 estimated that sex-

selective abortion in India has murdered a staggering number of

between 11.8 to 14.1 million women from India since 1990, noting

that even this may be a conservative estimate. The skewed sex

ratio at birth can also be due to the “stopping rules” reported in the

Economic Survey 2017-18, which states that 55% of couples in

India that have a girl will try to have another baby until they

Excess female under-5 mortality (per

1000 livebirths) in Indian districts

(circa 2003)


3

produce a boy. A report from the Indian Ministry of Finance estimates that 21 million girls are “unwanted”

by their parents that would have opted for a boy instead.

A female could be in vital danger in her infant years as well. A study using the 2011 census data

has approximated India’s excess female under-5 mortality rate (U5MR), meaning the difference between

observed and expected female U5MRs in India, to be about 18.5 per 1000 live births, which is about

239,000 excess deaths of girls in India each year. Different regions in India show different figures, but it

has been reported by a study published in the global health journal The Lancet that 29 of 35 states had

significant excess mortality rates. The journal also reports that gender bias could be responsible for 22%

of deaths among young girls. The grave problem is in that the gap in the sex ratio in the 0 to 6 age group

has been widening over the decades; the numbers are 102.4 males per 100 females in 1961, rising to

107.5 in 2001, and jumping to 108.9 in 2011.

According to the United Nations, the gender imbalance in India is around 107.6, whereas that of

the world is 101.8. India has 37.25 million fewer women than men according to the 2011 census. Even

after reaching adulthood, as some women in India do not receive equal education and healthcare as men,

their mortality rate is greater than expected of a country with its level of economic development. The

Government of India declares approximately 63 million women to now be “missing” from India’s

population.

Education & Literacy

The importance of education is undeniable in any country, and everyone has the right to access at

least elementary education according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Limits to

education put back the number of opportunities a person can seize, and it is especially vital as it is in

close correlation to the wage rate as well. However, students in India, especially the girls, do not always

receive the education they need.

One indicator of a population’s education level is its literacy

rate. While the overall literacy rate is on the rise, it shows a notable

gender disparity, with the male literacy rate being 82.14 percent,

while the female’s is at 65.56 percent. As reflected in the literacy rate

difference between its men and women, the people of India do not

provide equal opportunities for education to the two genders. At least,

though, comparing the 2001 and 2011 census data, the gap in literacy

between genders is appearing to be narrowing.

Girls in India from families in the bottom 20 percent do not

receive education at all, while girls from the top 20 percent receive

Literacy Rate in India (2011)


4

nine years of education on average. In economic downturns, as boys are prioritized, girls are the ones that

are pulled out of school first. Moreover, a lack of toilets and proper menstrual hygiene management

facilities cause more than 23 million girls to drop out of school each year. A better environment needs to

be created, not only in terms of the school but in social perception as well, for all girls in India to attain

what would be a huge factor in their lives.

Wage Rate & Participation in the Workforce

As can be expected, women in India are largely discriminated against in terms of work

opportunities and the wage rate as well. This is not India’s problem alone, with similar situations

protruding all around the world, and it is the common acknowledgment that a country would largely

improve economically and socially if women were used as a part of the labor force as well. On the

individual level, the perception that women should not work or are not as valuable in the workplace puts

women with lesser economic power in the household, which is very likely to have been in connection to

their treatment in the house that would be described later.

It has been reported by the International Labor

Organization (ILO) that women receive 34 percent less

wages than males if they perform the same work, which is

the highest gap among the 73 countries the ILO studied,

and the situation worsens moving down to the lower social

classes. In white-collar jobs, the gender pay gap is 27

percent. Even in the top societal tier, of all the Indian

billionaires, only 7.5 percent are females.

Economic Survey 2017-18 indicates evidence of great economic growths if women were able to

participate equally in the labor force and attain power and status politically. However, according to the

World Bank, the female labor force participation in India has dropped by a substantial amount, from

36.78 percent in 2005 to 26.97 percent as of 2018. Similar to the case with education, when expenditures

on public services such as education and healthcare are reduced, females are impacted the most – and

according to the WEF, India ranks third lowest in the world in terms of the gender gap in health and

survival.

Dowry

Although made illegal by the Dowry Prohibition Act in 1961, the practice of dowry is still quite

common in India. Patrilocality among many gender discrimination concepts has especially led to the view

of marrying women becoming a burden to their husband’s family, which in turn has dragged on the

Comparison of Wage Rate Disparity by

Gender in Multiple Countries


5

persistence of dowry payment as a sort of a price. Worse, the incidence of dowry payment has been

steadily rising in all regions and socioeconomic classes. The practice of dowry largely disempowers

women, and the burden of dowry is cited as one of the reasons for preference of male babies over female.

Especially as dowry payment could become a substantial part of a household’s income, crimes

have been committed from the husband’s family’s side if they deem the payment to not be enough.

According to India’s National Crime Reports Bureau (NCRB), 91,202 dowry deaths were reported

between 2001 and 2012, and 8,233 women were killed in dowry deaths in 2012 alone. The most common

of these is bride-burning, where the bride is doused with flammable liquid by the husband’s family and

set to fire. The number of cruelty cases committed by husbands and their relatives was 106,527 in the

same year, many of which are dowry related. Even more alarming is the fact that the conviction rate of

the dowry deaths and the cruelty cases are only 32 percent and 15 percent respectively. In that respect, the

legal system is not properly protecting its women.

Domestic Treatment & Violence

As is suggested by the section above, the

treatment of women in the household is not quite

healthy in all parts of India. To begin with, the social

norms that subject women to domesticity cause a great

imbalance in the number of hours men spent on unpaid

care work by gender – women spend approximately

five hours a day, while men spend only half an hour.

This takes away the chance for women to participate in

paid labor and hold economic power.

Some women and girls in India do not even

have the power to make everyday decisions, let alone decisions to attend a school or to marry whom. In

rural India, only around 38 percent of women have money that they could decide how to use, and just half

are allowed to go to a market alone.

Domestic violence proves to be extremely common in India as well. The National Family and

Health Survey of 2005-06 reports that 37 percent of married women have been inflicted physical or

sexual violence by their husbands, and women from specific minority groups are shown to be even more

likely to be subjected to violence by their spouses. A case of domestic violence is reported every five

minutes in India. A survey of 1,000 households in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Uttar

Pradesh has brought to attention that people believe it to be acceptable to criticize and beat women if they

make a mistake in completing housework.

Treatment of Women in India in the Household


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The abuse and mistreatment of women in the household, in turn, set them further back in their

powers, leading to a never-ending cycle that women cannot escape without outer factors.

Laws against Men

Some Indian laws have brought up an interesting side to the gender inequality case in India – the

need for avocation of men’s rights. Such laws include Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, which states

that only men could be prosecuted for adultery, 498 A of the same Code, which grants women the right to

imprison their husbands for inflicting physical or mental cruelty without providing any evidence, and 304

B of the Code, which deems all women’s death by burns or injuries within seven years of marriage, if any

harassment relating to dowry before death is shown, to be dowry deaths. These laws have been made in

protection of women, but are criticized for not solving the gender inequality in the right ways, possibly

only aggravating it.

International Actions

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

The CEDAW is an international treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979

to end discrimination against women in all forms. By signing the convention, states are obliged to

incorporate the principle of gender equality into their legal system, to establish public institutions for

effective protection of women against discrimination, and to ensure the elimination of all acts of

discrimination against women. India signed the treaty in 1980 and ratified it in 1993. In 2014, the

CEDAW committee criticized the Indian government for failing to comply with the treaty, urging

stronger action in terms of eliminating child marriage, preserving maternal health, and combatting marital

rape.

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (Save Daughter, Educate Daughter)

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) is a project operated by the joined forces of India’s Ministry of

Women and Child Development, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and Ministry of Human

Resource Development. Having started in January 2015, the initiative by the Government of India seeks

to ensure survival, protection, and empowerment of the girl child. The BBBP focuses on 100 selected

districts low in Child Sex Ratio (CSR) to implements its actions.


7

Key Players

United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women)

As the name suggests, UN Women is an entity of the UN working for the empowerment of

women. Created in July 2010, its main roles are to support intergovernmental bodies in formulating

policies, standards, and norms, to help member states implement these standards, and to lead and

coordinate the UN’s efforts on gender equality as well as promoting its accountability.

In India specifically, UN Women has supported the implementation of CEDAW and the Beijing

Declaration and Platform for Action. It worked in harmony with the Government of India to implement

and monitor the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (2005), erect Mahila Jagruk Manches

(women’s awareness platforms) as well as women leaders in villages, and collect census data on women.

Government of India

The Government of India has long since shown interest in reducing gender inequality and

enforcing women empowerment. Not only has it signed the CEDAW and is working in coherence with

UN Women, but it has also launched various systems and funds specifically

for women in the past couple of decades, and its Ministry of Women &

Child Development has come up with several Women Empowerment

Schemes, including the BBBP.

Despite these efforts, though, the fundamental problem of gender

inequality in India is still not being efficiently addressed, and discriminatory

social norms are still predominant. It would be important to focus on not

only specific services but also on the general perception and ideology the

nation has on genders.

Possible Solutions

Women in Leadership Positions

In a sense, this solution is both realistic and idealistic at the same time. People learn and react to

what can be seen – and as the current situation is that most leadership positions, whether in villages or in

companies, are occupied by males, that is absorbed as the societal norm for the next generation. Women

stepping up into positions with power could become role models for adolescent girls and switch up the

situation to better balance the gender disparity. A policy experiment that placed one-third representation

for women in village-level local leadership has found that in those villages led by women, female

residents’ opinions are better represented, and they are more confident in reporting crimes. Opening all-

The Emblem of India


8

women police stations (WPS) increased crime reportage by 22 percent and has also led to reduced

corruption. By achieving more representation for women in positions with more influence, the gender

inequality gap may be narrowed.

Educating the Young

Education is perhaps the largest factor in deciding an individual’s and a society’s quality

throughout a time period. Especially considering that India has the largest youth population in the world,

with the average age of the country in 2020 predicted to be 29, educating young children now will have a

humongous impact on the next generation.

By promoting methods to ensure the

attendance to school of young children,

especially females, and educating them since

young ages about the importance of gender

inequality, perhaps the hardest knot of societal

norms could be untangled.

Increasing Job Opportunities

While this may seem a very obvious and direct solution, there are a few interesting studies that

magnify this method better. One randomized study discovered that job recruiter visits to villages – simply

informing their women on job opportunities – led to higher rates in labor market participation and

enrollment in professional training, which further correlated to an increase in school enrollment of

younger girls, an increase in age of marriage and childbearing, and a decrease in the desired number of

children. In rural areas, the growth of white-collar business process outsourcing (BPO) industry created a

sudden increase in demand for educated female workers. More directly, providing training and

recruitment systems for young women to work in factories gives them economic and social independence

that they otherwise would not have experienced.

Change of Views towards Women

This is, in a sense, much closer to the ultimate goal than a solution – if this is achieved in the right

way, the problem likely would no longer exist.

The norms and attitudes that render girls to be less valuable compared to boys must change, and

females must be valued and invested in rather than be viewed as a burden. With changes of generations

and continuous stimulations, this most likely would be achieved, but the process should be hastened that

women could be made use of where their potential takes them, not simply only completing household.

Young Indian Children in School


9

Glossary

Foeticide

The abortion of a fetus in illegal methods

Patrilineality

Inheritance through male descendants

Patrilocality

A married couple living with or near the husband’s family

White-Collar Worker

A person working in the professional, managerial, or administrative sector

Dowry

Payment made from the bride’s family to the groom’s at the time of marriage


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Documents

Introduction - TIS Eagles · birth of males more than females without gender discrimination involved, India’s high ratio is quite notable in the international community and is highly