MUMBAI: Women have long been unable to progress economically, in the way and scale that their male counterparts have. India’s female workforce participation has sharply declined (19.6 million left the workforce) in the time (between 2006-2012) that the economy itself has grown substantially. This has allowed for at least 70% of overall household income in India to go to men. And it makes no fiscal sense either, to leave women out. Women can add up to 700 billion USDs if opportunities for both genders are made equal. So Vitamin Stree, decided to look into it and explore why this economic gender gap exists – and credit went to an ‘opportunities gap’ that has existed for decades, if not centuries now.
The opportunity gap has five key components; birth rate, education, workforce participation, safety and financial security. Vitamin Stree’s latest scratching the Surface video breaks down the opportunities gap with the aim to educate and inform viewers of what constitutes the gap, why it exists, and how eradicating the gap would affect the Indian economy. That gender disparity is deep-rooted in our society is nothing new, what is alarming is the rate at which we are trying to bridge this gap. The World Economic Forum recently said that it would take us 202 years to bridge the gap at the rate we are going. That’s a long time. And if we need to hasten the process, which we do, a good place to start is at the beginning.
Padmini Vaidyanathan, Head, Vitamin Stree: " Women need a new working reality, and for the workplace to be equal for everyone, the ground work needs to start at the time a girl is born. There is no magical, overnight solution to this, and with this video, we want to show gender gap, currently, only widens at every step of a girl’s life. We believe this can and will change, as long as we keep reminding ourselves, where all women are discriminated against, and actively work to resolve that.
