No country for women employees!

BENGALURU: The all-male GST council raised the tax on sanitary pads and reduced the same on shaving creams. This is what happens when women are not made part of policy decisions, remarked Dr Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Biocon CMD during a seminar at IIMB on Wednesday.

During her keynote address on 'Breaking the stereotype: Women entrepreneurs in unconventional businesses' as part of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, the biotech pioneer spoke about the struggles she faced in the industry due to gender discrimination.

"There is a perception that women are less capable of understanding science. I have been through this when people thought bio-technology was mumbo-jumbo. It was very challenging when I was treated like this while trying to start my own company. It was tough for me to convince people that bio-tech is a serious science field," Kiran said.

"It is frustrating that world over many industries do not hire, retain and promote women. They are less likely to become managers or CEOs," she added.

She pointed out that India ranked lesser than Bangladesh and stood close to Saudi Arabia, in the Economic Opportunities and Participatory gender gap index. Shaw encouraged non-traditional vocations, political representation, delivering speedy justice to women victims of sexual violence and called out the Government for spending less on women's health than men.

She cited a Harvard Business Review study which said all over the world, men with children are seen as responsible employees, but women with children are seen as less committed to work.

"Parity in pay and promotions will make us lose out on talent pool. The mandate to have at least one woman on board of directors in Indian corporates, is a cosmetic move. Schemes will work when the mindset changes. India's 108 rank is lowest since the World Economic Forum started measuring the gender gap since 2006. There is something amiss here," she stated.

"Speech after speech we talk about Nari Shakti. Yet, we find that the participation of women in Indian labour force has dropped from 37% in 2004-05 to 28.5% in 2017. This is 48.5% of India's population and this gender ratio is reflective of women's status in the society, I believe," she observed.

India cannot become an economic power, if half of the population is ignored, she added. Stating facts from various studies, she explained that even if women earn, they get paid lesser than men. For instance, in unskilled work, a woman gets Rs 30 and a man Rs 50 for the same job. Women work at home, for their job and in child care while men slack it off because of gender stereotypes. If that is not bad enough, India is fourth lowest in health and survival of the girl child and has the highest number of anemic women, Kiran highlighted.

Other speakers Rekha  M. Menon, Chairman and Senior Managing Director, Accenture and Dr Devi Shetty,  Chairman and Founder, Narayana Health, also addressed the panel on importance of women labour force in skilled and unskilled sectors.

In her address Rekha M. Menon said, “At 27%, India has one of the poorest representations of women in the workforce. That’s a lot of untapped economic potential. If we double their participation, India’s GDP growth could grow beyond 9 per cent." The Global Entrepreneurship Summit is being organised by FICCI, NITI Aayog and Nadathur S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL).