Punjab’s women are fighting an uphill battle on all fronts, from health to literacy and all the way to share in governance. But their steepest battle, according to a newly released report, is an economic one.

Punjab Commission on Status of Women has released Gender Parity Report 2021, covering six areas Demographics, Education, Health, Governance, Education, Economic Participation, Justice and Special Initiatives.

While a complete census has not been carried out, projection based data indicates that 50.7% of Punjab’s population is male while 49.3% is female. However, share in the overall demographic is the only area which both genders seem to be competing. Women clearly lag behind pretty much everywhere else.

Out of Punjab Assembly’s 371 seats in total, only 75 are women. If that doesn’t seem bleak enough, it needs reminding that 67 of these women were nominated on reserved seats (including one minority member). So out of 296 seats available for election, only 8 managed to win a seat in the assembly. But not only do women compete in and win fewer elections, they also vote alot lesser than men. There were 11 million fewer female voters than men in the last general election.

Economics: the toughest battle for women

However, even though the whole report is a record of how far women lag behind men in every sphere of life, and how improvements in any sector have been marginal at best, there is one place described as truly ‘abysmal’: women’s labour force participation.

In a chapter dedicated to economic opportunities and participation, the report reveals that female participation in the workforce is facing problems on two fronts.

The first is that the share of women’s participation in the workforce is declining overall. Women’s participation in the labour force came down from 28.1% to 27.8% over the course of one year.

There is also a massive problem of more women participation being higher in the rural areas (33.6%) than urban areas (15.4%). Employment in rural areas mostly means agriculture or traditional roles. In urban areas only 14.2% of the total workforce of over 12 million people are women.

In simpler terms this means that most women are stuck in low paying jobs that are not categorized as skills based. Indeed 16.75% of all employed women are actually just employed in unpaid labor inside the house.

The low participation is attributed to ‘social and cultural discrimination’ by the report. The only healthy development is that women’s employment has improved in urban areas, though by a measly 0.2%. This percentage could climb if the above mentioned constraints are removed.

The second problem is that even when employed, women are just paid less than their male counterparts. A staggering 62.4% of employed women are paid less than Rs15,000 per month.

While it may sound a clear solution that participation can be improved by encouraging women to be entrepreneurs, the report says that this solution is also subject to the same hurdles that women face elsewhere.

‘50 percent of women’s productive potential is underutilized, compared to 22 percent for men,’ the report says.

How can the economic equation be improved.

The report says divides its recommendations into two sections.

Policy interventions

-Equip workers across value chain

-Simplify the process of registering women-led businesses

-Incentivise businesses offering gender equitable packages

-Tax rebates

-Implementation of minimum wage policy

-Gender responsive budgeting

Procedural interventions

-Special economic zones for women

-Documentation of small businesses

-Registration of workers in informal sector

-Provision of safe travelling facilities

-Women focused professional services

-Gender and development budget

-Inclusion of women in beer returns skills

-Women-friendly workplace environment

However, it needs to be kept in mind that all policy initiatives will underachieve unless general attitudes toward women and their place in society see an improvement.