Gender equality is an issue that stands on the threshold of revolution at this point in time. It has become an issue that has taken center stage in the past few years and has become an almost umbrella issue for the several other problems that have come to the forefront. This has come from the slow realization in society, that gender is in fact not binary and is actually a very broad spectrum. This makes the world a much more accepting and inclusive one and gives people the freedom to practice their individuality and have an uncensored sense of self-expression. But unfortunately, in India and in many significant sectors around the world, it remains a fundamentally unsolved problem. Since gender inequality constitutes one of history’s most persistent and widespread forms of injustice, eliminating it will call for one of history’s biggest movements for change.

Gaps in gender equality exist in almost every sector. In South Asia, only 74 girls were enrolled in primary school for every 100 boys in 1990. However, by 2012, the enrolment ratios were the same. In 155 countries, at least one law exists which impedes women’s economic opportunities. The gender pay gap costs the global economy $160 trillion. Only 23.7% of all national parliamentarians are women. One in three women experiences some form of physical or sexual violence in their lifetimes. Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right but a necessary foundation for a peaceful and sustainable world. The exclusion of women places half of the world’s population outside the realm of opportunity and hinders building prosperous societies and economies. Equal access to education, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes are not only rights women should have, they benefit humanity at large which is what makes this problem even more outdated yet extremely current. By investing in the amelioration of the conditions that we have set for women, we not only make progress on Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals, we also make gains on the alleviation of poverty and fuel sustainable economic growth.

The tenet of the problem lies in the very setup of society and the mindsets it has thus formed. Patriarchy has infiltrated our lives at every level possible that often we perpetrate toxic practices and thought processes. Although India has achieved gender parity at the primary education level and is on track to achieve parity at all education levels, as of June 2019, the proportion of seats in the Lok Sabha held by women had only reached 11% but 46% in the Panchayati Raj Institutions. India is also confronting the challenge of violence against women. As an example, a baseline study revealed that in New Delhi, 92% of women had experienced some form of sexual violence in public spaces during their lifetime. In 2016, close to a third of total crimes reported against women in India was cruelty or physical violence by her husband or his relative. The Government of India has identified ending violence against women as a key national priority, which resonates with the Sustainable Development targets of the United Nations on gender equality. The prime minister’s Beti Bachao Beti Padhao initiative aims at equal opportunity and education for girls in India. In addition, specific interventions on female employment, programs on the empowerment of adolescent girls, the Sukanya Samridhi Yojana on girl child prosperity and the Janani Suraksha Yojana for mothers advance India’s commitment to gender equality and the targets of Goal 4.

What we must understand is that providing women and girls with equal access to education, health care, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes will fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanity at large. Implementing new legal frameworks regarding female equality in the workplace and the eradication of harmful practices targeted at women has become critical and appropriate penance should be offered for the same so that humanity can progress as a whole and not in fragments.

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