Intent to Impact: Unmet Goals of Women-Related Policies in India

World Bank says that as of 2021, women constitute 48.4 per cent of India’s total population participation of women in the workforce is much less. In 2020-21, women’s participation in labour force stood at only 25.8 per cent, while in the case of men, it was over 80 per cent. The push provided by the whole working age population to our economy will be much greater than the one given by only one half, basically men. Unfortunately, that is the case with India. Many national and state level programmes were launched to reduce this gender gap but the question is, has it made any difference?

Gender Discrimination is a problem that goes back a long long time. Policies like reservation of seats for women, etc cannot simply solve this issue. But they do set the tone for change. It is not just about getting a certain job or escaping domestic violence or harassment. It is a daily struggle.

This includes lack of enough public toilet facilities and the unsanitary environment in the existing ones, microaggression from their male counterparts and family responsibility, especially that of their kids. Swachh Bharat mission (SBM) launched in 2014, National Creche Scheme launched in 2006, Maternity Benefit (MB) Act 2017 and ‘pink ticket policy’ launched in 2019 were specifically aimed to address these issues but still success has proved elusive.

Swachh Bharat Challenges

The Government claims to have constructed 6,36,826 community and public toilets in urban areas as part of the flagship scheme Swachh Bharat Mission – Urban (SBM-U), but how many of these are female toilets, and how many of them are being maintained, that’s the question. Status of Civic Issues in Mumbai (June 2021) report, published by Praja Foundation, shows that as of 2020, only one out of four public toilets was for females. Also, based on the population figure of the census 2011, there was only one public toilet seat per 1,820 females. While SBM prescribes that there should be at least one public toilet seat per 100-200 females.

The ratio of community toilets is still much better. Praja Foundation reports that there is one community toilet seat per 36 females, while SBM prescribes that there should be one public toilet per 25 females.

Addressing the maintenance issue, Praja Foundations Report revealed that Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) received 255 complaints in 2019 and 227 in 2020 regarding unhygienic conditions of toilets, that too when only 0.3 per cent of all toilets were inspected.

TOI reports that as per the survey conducted by Channamma Kambara, Assistant Professor, Centre for Research in Urban Affairs (CRUA) at Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), due to the non-availability of hygienic public toilets, 50 per cent of the women suffer mental stress because of postponement of defecation, 47 per cent suffer from upset stomach and 2 per cent from urinary tract infection

Creches on Corporate Crutches

Another problem any working woman with children faces is where can she keep her children safe during working hours, and the National Creche Scheme (NCS) was introduced to do away with this fear. The scheme aimed to provide affordable creches to working mothers. Women from low-income groups, having children between six months to six years, could leave their children in nurturing care at a cost ranging between ₹100 to ₹200 per child per month, while BPL families have to pay only ₹20 per child per month.

The Hindu reports that creches provided by NCS seem to have been disappearing due to lack of funding. Report claims around 11,582 creches have been closed between the financial year 2018 and 2020. In the beginning of 2017-18, there were 18,040, in 2018-19, it came down to 8,018 and 6,458 in 2019-20.

With the new amendment in the Maternity Benefit (MB) Act, each establishment with more than 50 employees has to have a functional creche within a prescribed distance. A Report published by International Finance Corporation, “Benefits and Challenges of a Workplace Creche” includes a survey which covered 255 Indian employers and revealed that before the MB amendment, only 22 per cent of the employer had a creche facility. 27 per cent of employers built a creche after the amendment, 22 per cent are in the process of development, 9 per cent are in the early planning stages, and 21 per cent are yet to consider the construction of such facilities.

Free Ticket to Microaggression

Another fear that hinders women from going out is travelling in an unsafe environment, especially in public transport. Buses are one of the most infamous modes of travel among women when it comes to public transport and taking personal cabs is not everyone’s cup of tea. Keeping this in mind the Delhi government came up with the idea to provide free travel to women in UT buses. The idea was to increase ridership of women, thereby increasing safety by numbers, apart from CCTVs and a Marshall. Since its launch in 2019, the DTC (Delhi Transport Corporation) has sold 100 crore pink tickets.

Although the policy has increased the ridership from 25 per cent in 2020-21 to 28 per cent in 2021-22 and 33 per cent in 2022-23, it has exposed women to microaggression. There have been plenty of anecdotal events where often women have boarded buses because of the free travel while men had to pay. They argue that travel for them has become difficult and inconvenient because all the seats are occupied by women thanks to this ‘pink ticket policy”.

Not only the passengers but the staff members also consider the increased ridership of women a nuisance because women travelling for free shoo away the people who actually pay for the ticket. Instead of boarding a crowded bus, a paying passenger would rather wait for the next bus. Drivers often skip bus stops, which are crowded with women or where there are only women. The recent incident that made headlines and got the driver suspended for not stopping the bus for women is another evidence of this microaggression. Not to forget verbal and physical harassment that they face.

Although some schemes have met their targets, they have failed to resolve the problem showing that we are still missing something. For instance, SBM has achieved its target of constructing toilets, but has failed to maintain hygiene standards in them. Same is the case with corporate creches because not all women work in well-to-do firms with creches free of cost. Also, the MB amendment is silent on what if women work far from home and don’t want to travel with their kids for such long distances; will they be provided with a creche in their locality and what about firms with less than 50 employees? Similarly, the ‘pink ticket policy’ does not account for the microaggression it has brought upon women passengers.