Does Violence Against Women Affect Country's Economical Health?

 With the advance of the 22nd century, Indian women are taking on more significant roles when it comes to shopping. They’re as lively as Indian men to log online to plan purchases, and half of all women respondents in a recent survey were the key decision-makers during car purchases. But in many aspects of life—social, cultural and even financial they still face gender discrimination.

The slogan “Women’s Rights are Human Rights” adopted at the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993 and the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women by the General Assembly the same year further demonstrate the increasing awareness and the attention being paid to the respect of the right of women. It is pertinent and timely to identify that the values placed on women and the girl child by the society has overbearing impact on their life and the human development Women’s rights around the world are important indicators to understand global well-being. Yet, despite many successes in empowering women, numerous issues still exist in all areas of life, ranging from the cultural, political to the economic. For example, women often work more than men, yet are paid less; gender discrimination affects girls and women throughout their lifetime; and women and girls are often the ones that suffer the most poverty.

In 100 countries around the world, women are barred from doing certain work solely because they are women. More than 150 countries have at least one law that is discriminatory towards women. And only 18 countries are free of any law disadvantaging women.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of legal barriers for women to achieve their full economic potential. New World Bank Group research in the Women, Business and the Law 2016 report shows that in 32 countries women cannot apply for passports in the same way as men and in 18 countries they cannot get a job if their husbands feel it is not in the family’s interest. Jordan and Iran are among them. In 59 countries, there are no laws against sexual harassment at work. Myanmar, Uzbekistan and Armenia are among 46 countries where there is no legal protection against domestic violence. In a nutshell, the research makes for depressing reading when you care about inclusion and ending poverty.

Countries whose laws discriminate against women and do not promote gender equality suffer economically. Previous research tells us that gender gaps in women’s entrepreneurship and labor force participation account for estimated income losses of 27% in the Middle East and North Africa, 19% in South Asia, 14% in Latin America and the Caribbean and 10% in Europe. These are losses that many countries can’t afford, particularly those facing high levels of poverty.

There is good news too: Countries like Bangladesh are encouraging female participation in the workforce. If they stay on track, their female workforce will grow from 34 to 82% over the next decade, adding 1.8 percentage points to their GDP. In the 1990s very few countries had laws protecting women from violence, now 127 do partially because the world is more aware of the human and economic cost of mistreating women.

When women are allowed to work in a profession of their choice, when they have access to financial services and when they are protected, by law, from domestic violence, they are not only economically empowered, they also live longer. The more say they have over the household income and the more they participate in the economy, the more girls are enrolled in secondary school, the larger the benefits for their children, their communities, and their countries. In fact, every additional year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10 to 20%, and an extra year of secondary school by 15 to 25%.

Policymakers have a choice. They can use the overwhelming evidence that shows the economic benefits of equality by ridding their system of discriminating laws that are holding women back. Or they can maintain the status quo and condemn whole societies to remain poorer than they need to be. 

- Arya Rajan Sahu