ET Women's Forum: India’s GDP can expand by 27 per cent if women get equal representation

India can race ahead if it can harness the latent, but yet untapped power of its half a billion plus women.

ET presents a snapshot of how women are faring on 10 diverse parameters. Many things a re still not fair and right when it comes to gender equality.

Quite obviously, India cannot move forward unless she takes all her women along.

Whose loss is bigger? That’s one question that needs to be asked as India studies and tries to correct its gender inequality.

Is it only India’s half a billion women who are losing out on education, health and economic opportunities? Or, is it the nation that is suffering the greater economic and social loss because women are not truly empowered?

The answer, as a recent International Monetary Fund research pointed out, is obvious. India’s GDP can expand by 27% if only its women get equal opportunity to participate in the workforce as much as men.

We need many positive interventions to correct the gender gap in all aspects of work, life and play.

The government is doing some — launching the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and Sukanya Samridhi Yojanas. It has also made 26 week’s maternity mandatory leave mandatory. Companies with over 50 employees are also obliged to provide crèche facilities.

Also read: ET Women's Forum - complete coverage

India Inc too is seeing the fruit of such positive intervention. The Companies Act of 2013 mandated a certain class of companies to have at least one woman director on board. Now, out of 1,723 NSE listed companies, 1,667 companies had met the mandate of one woman director on board, according to data from PrimeDatabase.

As we take an objective look at where women stand on 10 important parameters, perhaps there is a strong case for more such positive interventions.

More such ways to explore empowering women more and more will be discussed at The Economic Times Women’s Forum on March 16. ET has established this collaborative forum to create an urgent, sustainable and national culture of empowering India’s half a billion women. Facebook is partnering with The Economic Times to create the ET Women’s Forum.