W20 & a world of equality for women

Women constitute half the world’s population but contribute only 37 per cent of the global GDP. No economy can operate at its full potential if half its population does not fully contribute. With the global women labour force participation at 50 per cent and India’s at 33 per cent, the quest is to ensure more women are brought into the workforce and paid economy.

Multiple challenges impede gender parity - the gaps in education and skill development, the gender divide in financial and digital, legal protection, unpaid care work, leadership and entrepreneurship at the grassroots level. If all these are addressed, we will reap huge benefits and can contribute to India’s aim of becoming a $5 trillion economy. And 2023 brings hope.

There is euphoria in India over G20 as Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has said “India’s G20 Presidency will be inclusive, ambitious, decisive, and action-oriented”. A priority area in India’s presidency is ‘Women-led Development,’ W20 - the official G20 engagement group focused on gender equity - has a critical role to play to ensure the voices of millions of women across India are mainstreamed into G20 discussions and translate into the G20 Leaders’ Declaration as policies and commitments that foster gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.

Across India, many national and state-level schemes operate on the economic empowerment of girls and women. Ujjwala, Mudra, Ladlee Laksmhi (Madhya Pradesh) and here in Odisha -the women empowerment model with its flagship initiative ‘Mission Shakti’ has taken centre stage. Seven lakh self-help groups (SHGs) with 70 lakh members have ensured women’s participation in all productive activities and helped them achieve economic independence.

There have been efforts to make SHGs market-ready with quality products and market linkages and transform them from entities primarily used for borrowing and lending money to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This requires huge investments in capacity building and professionalising the ecosystem. Learning from successful models like AMUL cooperatives, its management and product diversification will benefit our SHGs too.

This is what W20 during India’s 2023 G20 Presidency is striving to do. W20 seeks to highlight and document the best practices, the 75 years of progress and the success of women empowerment across various states, sectors and segments; cross-learning of the successful models from Odisha and other states as well as G20 countries; recommendations from grassroots through public outreach programmes and policy recommendations.

W20 will have outreach programmes for girls, women, youth and other stakeholders in all the states and seek out to millions of women to make the consultation process inclusive and diverse. This is being done with civil society networks, academic and knowledge partners and voluntary youth networks. W20 is harnessing the power of youth and women to transform the lives of India’s women.

W20 India’s presidency is chaired by Dr Sandhya Purecha with eminent women from different sectors as India delegates. Let’s seize the moment for empowerment, equality, equity and transformation of the 50 per cent of the world’s population - Women!