India needs a gender strategy

It must adopt a holistic approach consisting of fiscal, administrative, and regulatory measures, combined with public messaging and mindset changes

Globally, the average workforce participation is 50 per cent for women and 80 per cent for men. In India, the corresponding ratio is similar for men, but strikingly lower for women, at under 30 per cent.

Claudia Goldin recently won the Economics Nobel Prize for explaining various facets of entrenched gender gaps in employment. Her research shows that more women enter the workforce when several conditions are met: There are appropriate jobs (for example, in the services sector); women are more educated; they can independently decide when to have children; societal stigma, discriminatory legislation, and other institutional barriers are removed;