Uplifting Women Through Social and Economic Equality

Every child deserves to reach her or his full potential, but gender inequalities in their lives and in the lives of those who care for them hinder this reality. Wherever they live in India girls and boys see gender inequality in their homes and communities every day – in textbooks, in movies, in the media and among the men and women who provide their care and support.

Across India, gender inequality results in unequal opportunities, and while it impacts the lives of both genders, statistically it is girls that are the most disadvantaged. Globally girls have higher survival rates at birth, are more likely to be developmentally on track, and are just as likely to participate in preschool, but India is the only large country where more girls die than boys. Girls are also more likely to drop out of school. In India girls and boys experience adolescence differently.

A challenge persists

While boys tend to experience greater freedom, girls tend to face extensive limitations on their ability to move freely and to make decisions affecting their work, education, marriage and social relationships. As girls and boys age the gender barriers continue to expand and continue into adulthood where we see only a quarter of women in the formal workplace.

Some Indian women are global leaders and powerful voices in diverse fields but most women and girls in India do not fully enjoy many of their rights due to deeply entrenched patriarchal views, norms, traditions and structures.

There are risks, violations and vulnerabilities girls face just because they are girls. Most of these risks are directly linked to the economic, political, social and cultural disadvantages girls deal with in their daily lives. This becomes acute during crises and disasters.

With the prevalence of gender discrimination, and social norms and practices, girls become exposed to the possibility of child marriage, teenage pregnancy, child domestic work, poor education and health, sexual abuse, exploitation and violence. Many of these manifestations will not change unless girls are valued more.

What can be done

Empowering girls requires focused investment and collaboration. Providing girls with the services and safety, education and skills they need in daily life can reduce the risks they face and enable them to fully develop and contribute to India’s growth. Girls have an especially difficult time accessing life-saving resources, information and social networks in their daily life.

Access to programmes specifically tailored to the needs of girls – with a focus on education and developing life skills, ending violence and incorporating the needs and contributions of girls from vulnerable groups, including those with disabilities, can strengthen the resilience of millions of girls. Long-term solutions designed with and for girls can further strengthen this resilience and be a pathway of transformational and lifelong opportunity for girls.

Improvements in labor market prospects also have the potential to empower women. An influential randomisation study found that job recruiter visits to villages to provide information to young women led to positive effects on their labor market participation and enrolment in professional training.

This also led to an increase in age at marriage and childbearing, a drop in the desired number of children, and an increase in school enrolment of younger girls not exposed to the programme.

Recent initiatives on training and recruiting young women from rural areas for factory-based jobs in cities provide economic independence and social autonomy that they were unaccustomed to in their parental homes.

Empowering literacy program

Computer Training and Digital Literacy Program is an initiative under BharatCares (by CSRBOX) that aims to provide basic computer and digital literacy training to underprivileged girls and women. This includes those who have dropped out from the school or are currently pursuing their education.

The onsite training program has also opened up avenues for housewives and married women who want to get hands-on training in computers. The program focuses on bridging the digital divide by imparting the essential digital literacy skills to empower girls and women.

The 1-month onsite training program is led by an instructor. They make these women and girls digitally ready by providing training on basic computer skills, skills needed to navigate a smartphone, create an email account and use it effectively, make digital payments and more.