‘Raising women’s participation in the labour force to the same level as men can boost India’s GDP’

Shoko Noda, resident representative, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), India is a strong advocate for gender equality. She explains to Nupur Amarnath about how women-centric policies are the way forward:

Over the last five years UNDP has changed focus to looking at all programmes through a gender lens. What was the need?

I am personally very passionate about gender equality. Being a combination of East Asian, soft spoken and a woman leader, I worked extra hard to build trust with colleagues. I have witnessed in the last 20 years how gender got integrated in everything we did. Gender equality lies at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – it is both a fundamental human right and a necessary foundation for a prosperous and sustainable world. It has been at the centre of our development work since over two decades. In India too, gender equality has always been a central component of our work but since 2010, we increased our focus on addressing intersectionality between gender, poverty and exclusion.

While gender inequalities can affect anyone, it delays global progress towards achieving the SDGs and it is women who face the most discrimination. For instance, India’s female Labour Force Participation Rate fell from 36.7% in 2005 to 26% in 2018, with 95% women employed in the unorganised sector or engaged in unpaid care work. And it is a fact that raising women’s participation in the labour force to the same level as men can boost India’s GDP by 27%.

In 2018, we launched our third global gender equality strategy. Since then, we have mainstreamed gender into all programmes and operations. We have programmes such as Inclusive Growth and the Disha Project which focusses on enabling women and youth from marginalised communities with skills and livelihood opportunities. We also ensure that our partnerships with the private sector focus on addressing gender disparity. With the government (ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship) too, as UNDP, we are technical partners where we rolled out a curriculum for Biz Sakhis – women mentors who help other women in semi-urban and rural areas start their own businesses.

Is applying a gender lens critical to achieving success in development programmes?

Women and girls are agents of change and not just a vulnerable group. The system is often gender unequal, forcing women to make choices which may not be in their favour. Amartya Sen in the first Human Development Report has said: “Development consists of the removal of various types of unfreedoms.” Gender lens is not fixed and changes over time – between cultures and in programmes. When we use a gender approach in our programme, we focus not only on individual women and men but also on the barriers which prevent them from working, which define their roles, responsibilities, and decision making skills. These cause women to be engaged in unpaid care work. While India has made great progress in increasing its GDP per capita, this is not matched with women’s contribution to the workforce. In India, according to the OECD, women spend on an average 352 minutes a day on unpaid work against 52 minutes among men.

What are the changes you have noticed on ground?

The last few years have seen historic achievements in reducing the number of people who are poor, making the end of extreme poverty possible in the coming generation. But it requires cutting the multiple roots of impoverishment. One of the deepest is gender discrimination. For instance, less than half (47.7%) of all women participated in the labour force globally. Since the time we have introduced women in our work, we have seen their financial situation improve, they have become more independent and confident.

Are there some challenges that are specific to India?

There is low visibility of women in work, unequal care work, lack of family support as well as social norms. According to our new analysis called ‘Tackling Social Norms – 2020 Human Development Perspectives’, close to 90% of men and women in 75 countries hold some sort of bias against women, providing new clues to the invisible barriers women face in achieving equality. Some areas that will help women to come at the forefront of the workforce are if women in rural and semi-urban areas are able to start their own small businesses. Similarly, for young girls to have awareness about career options after school and college is important. Hence, career guidance and counselling are important. There’s a need for more awareness on the kind of skills which are in demand in the world of work. These information gaps need to be filled in.