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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Sen <keyword id="12032130" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="bill-cassidy" source="Orion">Bill Cassidy</keyword> said his state's high maternal death rates are more standard if you "correct for race," Politico reports.</li><li>Louisiana has a high Black population and one of the worst maternal death rates in the US.</li></ul>Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy said that the state's poor maternal mortality rate is only an "outlier" because of the high proportion of <keyword id="12297901" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="black-women" source="Orion">Black women</keyword> in the state, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/19/why-louisianas-maternal-mortality-rates-are-so-high-00033832">according to Politico</a>. Cassidy's comment was featured in Politico's in-depth exploration of Louisiana's maternal death rates, which are among the worst in the country. The state ranks 47 out of 48 states assessed for maternal deaths, <a href="https://ldh.la.gov/assets/docs/LegisReports/SR240HR294RS201992019.pdf">state officials said</a>. Cassidy told the outlet that this is partly because "about a third of our population is African American; African Americans have a higher incidence of maternal mortality."So, if you correct our population for race, we're not as much of an outlier as it'd otherwise appear."He continued: "Now, I say that not to minimize the issue but to focus the issue as to where it would be. For whatever reason, people of color have a higher incidence of maternal mortality."Overall, <a href="https://ldh.la.gov/assets/docs/LegisReports/SR240HR294RS201992019.pdf">according to Louisiana's Department of Health,</a> "four black mothers die for every white mother" in the state. It outpaces a three-to-one ratio nationwide, which is already the worst in the developed world, Politico reported. Dean Michelle Williams of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health discussed Cassidy's comments <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/deans-office/2022/05/19/the-crisis-of-maternal-mortality/">in a blog post</a>. (The Politico article was produced as part of a series partnership with the school.)Williams said: "It's no mystery why maternal mortality rates are so high among Black women. They are high because of the devastating impacts of structural <keyword id="11893536" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="racism" source="Orion">racism</keyword> and individual bias."<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternal-mortality/pregnancy-mortality-surveillance-system.htm#:~:text=Since%20the%20Pregnancy%20Mortality%20Surveillance,100%2C000%20live%20births%20in%202017.">According to the CDC</a>, Black women are disadvantaged in their "access to care, quality of care, prevalence of chronic diseases, structural racism, and implicit biases" in <keyword id="11897506" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="healthcare" source="Orion">healthcare</keyword>.Williams said she found Cassidy's framing "disturbing.""This is not a moment to quibble about how states are ranked," Williams wrote."It's not a moment to correct for race. It's a moment to assert that Louisiana — precisely because it has such a large population of Black women — must seize a leadership role in making pregnancy and childbirth safer for all."She noted that Cassidy has supported numerous public health measures, including those that protect pregnancies. Cassidy's comment comes soon after <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473">Politico's publishing</a> of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/roe-wade-abortion-live-updates-2022-5">a leaked draft of a Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade</a>, a measure that the Senator supports. <a href="https://prolifelouisiana.org/laws-elections/federal-legislation/federal-elected-officials/senator-bill-cassidy/">Anti-abortion organization Louisiana Right To Life says that</a> Cassidy has a "100% pro-life voting record." Louisiana is also <a href="https://lailluminator.com/2022/05/17/louisiana-legislature-advances-two-abortion-restriction-bills/">one of 13 states with "trigger laws"</a> that would come into effect to ban abortion if Roe v. Wade, as looks likely, is overturned. Following the Roe leak, top British medical journal <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2822%2900870-4/fulltext">The Lancet warned in a stark editorial statement</a> that "women will die" if the decision is overturned. Furthermore, Black women will be the group most affected by the move, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/abortion-restrictions-disproportionately-impact-people-color/story?id=84467809">ABC News reported</a>.Asked by Politico how maternal death rates may be affected by the measure, Cassidy said: "If we're using abortion to limit maternal deaths, that's kind of an odd way to approach the problem."

Maternal death rate isn't as bad if you don't count Black women, GOP senator says

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Dr. Chaniece Wallace, a pediatric chief resident in Indiana, died after developing pre-eclampsia the day her daughter was delivered prematurely via C-section. </li><li>Pre-eclampsia is thought to be one of the most preventable <keyword id="6357793" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pregnancy">pregnancy</keyword> complications, but rates are higher, and the prognosis worse, among Black women. </li><li>Black women are at least 2.5 times as likely to die in <keyword id="31250" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="childbirth">childbirth</keyword> than white women, with one estimate showing rates among college-educated Black women are 5.2 times that of white women. </li><li>Experts say implicit bias in the medical system and a culture that discourages Black families from play into the tragic <keyword id="2386666" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="disparities">disparities</keyword>. </li></ul>Dr. Chaniece Wallace, a pediatric chief resident at Indiana University School of Medicine, dedicated her career to caring for young lives. She was excited to use that gift in her personal life too, as she and her husband were expecting a daughter due November 20."We had discussed all of the many possibilities of her bright future and the limitless paths she could follow," Wallace's husband, Anthony Wallace, <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/charlotte-wallace">wrote on a GoFundMe page</a>, adding that his wife "had a special way of being empathetic with her patients and making each one of them feel special." But Wallace never got that chance, dying in childbirth after their daughter, named Charlotte Azaela, was born prematurely via C-section, Anthony Wallace wrote Monday. Wallace had developed pre-eclampsia, a pregnancy complication characterized by high blood pressure that's more common in Black women. "Chaniece fought with every piece of strength, courage, and faith she had available," Anthony Wallace wrote.Wallace's death has roiled both the local and national medical community, with colleagues demanding change to a healthcare system in which maternal mortality rates <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/u-s-finally-has-better-maternal-mortality-data-black-mothers-n1125896">are at least 2.5 times higher</a> in Black women than white women.The GoFundMe page, which supports Anthony Wallace and Charlotte, who remains in the neonatal intensive care unit but is "doing exceptionally well," has already raised more than $76,000. The goal was $5,000. <h2>Pre-eclampsia, one of the most preventable causes of maternal death, disproportionately affects Black women</h2>According to the GoFundMe page, Wallace developed symptoms of preeclampsia on October 20, the same day her daughter was born. Over the next two days, she underwent surgery and experienced a ruptured liver, high blood pressure, and poorly functioning kidneys, Anthony Wallace wrote. Pre-eclampsia, a condition Beyonce also had, causes women to develop high blood pressure and usually protein in her urine, and can also lead to swelling in their legs, hands, face, or whole body, according to <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/a_to_z/preeclampsia-and-eclampsia-a-to-z">Harvard Medical School</a>. If it develops into eclampsia, women experience seizures and may be at higher risk of stroke."In parts of the world with more limited medical care, preeclampsia and eclampsia cause many women to die during pregnancy," the Harvard website says. "Fortunately, with appropriate prenatal care and monitoring, most women with preeclampsia and eclampsia and their babies survive just fine." But the outlook is bleaker for Black women in America, whose rates of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia are about 60% higher than white women, and who are more likely to experience poor outcomes from the condition, <a href="https://hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb222-Preeclampsia-Eclampsia-Delivery-Trends.jsp?utm_source=ahrq&amp;utm_medium=en-1&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=1&amp;utm_campaign=ahrq_en4_25_2017ahrq_en4_25_2017">one 2017 report</a> out of the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found. <h2>Racial disparities persist in maternal mortality rates </h2>In the US, Black women are <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr69/nvsr69_01-508.pdf">at least two and a half more likely</a> to die in pregnancy, childbirth, or immediately postpartum than white women. <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2019/p0905-racial-ethnic-disparities-pregnancy-deaths.html">Other statistics</a> show pregnancy-related deaths for Black, American Indian, and Alaska Native women over 30 years old are four to five times as high as they are for white women.The pregnancy-related mortality ratio for black women with at least a college degree is 5.2 times that of white women, the same data, out of the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2019/p0905-racial-ethnic-disparities-pregnancy-deaths.html">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found</a>. Doctors and researchers have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/half-pregnant-women-in-uk-coronavirus-black-ethnic-minorities-2020-6">pointed to a variety of factors that could help explain the outcomes</a>, including socioeconomic status and access to prenatal treatment, but as a physician, Wallace's death highlights other factors, like racial bias in the medical system. "To this day, Black people are less likely to get the same treatment in terms of pain medication, they're more likely to wait longer in the ER, they're less likely to be taken seriously — it's a holdover from the days of slavery," Dr. Jennifer Lincoln, an OB-GYN, <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@drjenniferlincoln/video/6835696093255322886">said on TikTok</a> in response to <a href="https://www.insider.com/pregnant-youtuber-nicole-theas-death-highlights-a-tragic-trend-2020-7">the death of Nicole Thea, a London-based social media star</a>, who died July 11 along with her unborn child at 8 months pregnant. Lincoln highlighted a study showing that 50% of doctors and residents surveyed falsely <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2016/04/04/medical-students-beliefs-race-pain/">believe Black people experience pain differently than white people</a>, leading to inappropriate treatment. Sayida Peprah, a psychologist and doula, <a href="https://www.insider.com/black-babies-more-likely-to-die-when-cared-white-doctors-2020-8">previously told Insider</a> implicit bias in the medical system can also play out when a Black mother is dismissed when she raises a concern, a Black father is dissuaded from asking questions because the healthcare providers perceive him as hostile, or a clinician puts less effort into caring for a Black infant or mom due to "unconscious influences around the lack of value of their lives." In her TikTok, Lincoln told healthcare professionals "check your implicit bias" and urged women of color to speak up if they feel they're not getting appropriate care. "If this is happening to you, ask to speak to a different nurse, a different doctor, report them, speak up," she said. <ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more:</li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/black-woman-died-during-childbirth-new-york-hospital-shaasia-washington-2020-7">A 26-year-old woman died during childbirth in a New York City hospital, another loss in a tragic trend affecting women of color</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/pregnant-youtuber-nicole-theas-death-highlights-a-tragic-trend-2020-7"> The death of pregnant YouTube star Nicole Thea highlights a tragic trend affecting women of color</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/black-babies-more-likely-to-die-when-cared-white-doctors-2020-8">Black babies are 3 times more likely to die when cared for by white doctors. Their mortality rate plunges with Black doctors.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/us-birth-rates-hit-record-low-2019-cdc-report-2020-5"> The US birth rate has fallen to the lowest in 35 years, and experts worry we could face a 'demographic time bomb'</a></li></ul>

A Black doctor died in childbirth, highlighting a tragic trend that affects pregnant women of color in the US

<ul><li>The Indian government is reportedly going to introduce a separate unit dedicated to improve the status of women in different states. </li><li>The unit is likely to be set up under the <keyword id="114696" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="women-and-child-development">Women and Child Development</keyword> Ministry and its state counterpart. </li></ul>The Indian government is reportedly working on developing a dedicated unit to track the progress of women status in different states across the country, <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/bridging-the-gap-unit-to-monitor-states-gender-targets-on-cards/articleshow/69765017.cms?utm_source=ETTopNews&amp;utm_medium=HP&amp;utm_campaign=TN&amp;utm_content=23">reported</a> Economic Times. The government is planning to set up the unit under Women and Child Development Ministry and its state-level counterparts. It will reportedly join hands with the government’s think tank, NITI Aayog and introduce a gender based index that will rank states considering various parameters, said a senior official to Economic Times. Women in India <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/international-womens-day-indian-women-still-a-long-way-off-from-empowerment/articleshow/68313107.cms">continue to struggle</a> given the widened <keyword id="6372584" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="gender-equality">gender equality</keyword> gap and discrimination against women <a href="https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/how-to-reduce-the-gender-gap-in-states/article26378758.ece">According to the Economic Survey 2018</a>, Over 63 million women are “missing” whereas 21 million girls fall in the category of “unwanted” because of a traditional preference for a boy child. Moreover, more and more girls are dropping out from secondary and higher secondary school than before. Most women have to spend ten times the working hours of men in doing household chores. And despite the education, only 23.3% of the female were a part of labour workforce in 2017-2018, according to National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) Many other countries including Finland have a separate unit that is responsible for promoting gender equality. The same idea was suggested earlier this year by NITI Aayog in its Strategy for New India @ 75’ document, however the progress was halted because of the general election that were due to take place in April- May. The new government is now planning to re-look at all the pending proposals, especially those focusing on women. The unit, once developed, will gather data and conduct regular reviews from other ministries and define gender targets to be achieved in that state. Reportedly, some of the targets may include reducing anaemia rate in adolescent girls and mortality rate in pregnant women. Since women are dealing with multiple issues, the key parameter that will help assess the status of women in different states can include, sex ratio, number girls completing secondary school, maternal mortality rate, crime against women and labour participation rate.

The Indian government is reportedly planning a 'gender equality' unit

<ul><li>Indians are hoping that the Narendra Modi-led government will take a step forward to advance the ‘promised’ healthcare facilities in India. </li><li>India’s spending on healthcare is below some of the low-income countries which spend 1.4% of their GDP on health. </li></ul>The government will unveil its annual budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year on July 5, 2019, and people are longing for improved healthcare. It is likely to allocate ₹59,039 crore in the financial year 2019-20, an increase of 11% from the current financial year, <a href="https://www.indiaspend.com/why-indias-public-health-facilities-may-suffer-despite-a-likely-rise-in-health-spending/">according</a> to India spend. The government has already allocated ₹52,800 crore (budget estimates) in the health sector of the country,<a href="https://dea.gov.in/sites/default/files/MTEF%20Statement%20%28english%29%202018.pdf"> according to the medium term expenditure projection statement</a> presented in the Parliament by the Ministry of Finance. Indians are hoping that the Narendra Modi-led government will take a step forward to advance the ‘promised’ healthcare facilities in India. The interim budget did not prominently focus on the government’s flagship scheme, National Health Mission as it received only a marginal increase of ₹1,600 crore against ₹1,400 crore in 2018-19. 
 
 
 
 
 
 












 Defense over health Over the years, the government has been spending five times more on defense than on healthcare in the country. India’s health allocation is ₹63,538 crore in 2019-20 against an investment of ₹282,733 crore in defense. The trend in budget allocation for both departments have been much similar in the budgets announced for the past two years, the wire <a href="https://thewire.in/health/indias-defence-budget-is-nearly-five-times-the-health-budget">reported. </a> Health emergency in India The current government promised to address roadblocks in the healthcare sector including a shortage in infrastructure, access to medical facilities and inexpensive treatments. However, the current status of healthcare in India portrays a completely different picture. Recently India’s poorest state, Bihar faced a medical crisis when <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-48741451">more than 150</a> children — mostly under the age of 10 and malnourished — died of an outbreak of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in Muzaffarpur district. "Children are dying because of a lack of medicines and treatment,"Rabri Devi, Bihar’s opposition figure. According to Rural Health Statistics Bulletin 2017-18, the country is short of 32,900 sub-centres (catering to a population of 5,000), 6,430 primary health centres (PHCs, catering to 30,000 people) and 2,188 community health centres that are supposed to address the health needs of 80,000-120,000 people in rural areas, as on March 31, 2018. Infact, only 7% of the sub-centres, 12% of primary health centres and 13% of the CHCs are functioning, <a href="http://nhm.gov.in/nhm/nrhm/guidelines/indian-public-health-standards.html">Indian Public Health Standards</a> (IPHS). The situation is much worse in tribal areas as it is short of 5,935 sub-centres, 1,187 PHCs and 275 CHCs, said the RHS 2017-18. The population-doctor ratio in government hospitals is 25 times lower in India than the ratio recommended by the World Health Organisation. ₹3 : Daily expenses on healthcare India spends less than two per cent of its GDP on healthcare, making it one of the lowest investors in the sector globally. The World Health Organisation places India’s healthcare spends behind Iraq and Venezuela. The country suffers from a lack of infrastructure and is short of doctors, particularly in rural areas. India spent 1.02% of its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015. This spending has remained the same for almost six years. India’s spending on healthcare is even below some of the low-income countries which spend 1.4% of their GDP on health,<a href="http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=180053"> pointed out </a>National Health Profile. The negligence in public health spending forces even poorer patients to seek private healthcare. The country is the sixth biggest out-of-pocket (OOP) health spenders in 2014 amongst low middle-income group, <a href="https://archive.indiaspend.com/cover-story/indians-sixth-biggest-private-spenders-on-health-among-low-middle-income-nations-78476">reported </a>India Spend. The current pace of slow increase in the healthcare budget will make it difficult for India to achieve targets like reducing the maternal mortality rate to 100 in 2018-20 and infant mortality to 28 deaths per 1000 live births by 2019.

Health Budget 2019: India might increase spending on healthcare but that may not be enough

<ul><li>Currently, <keyword id="3658" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="India">India</keyword> spends only 1.2% of its GDP on <keyword id="6354525" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="healthcare">healthcare</keyword>. </li><li>the government has passed the National <keyword id="6354750" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="health">Health</keyword> Policy (NHP) to increase the public healthcare spending to 2.5% of the GDP with a special focus on the underprivileged. </li><li>Once launched <keyword id="344159" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="MODICARE">Modicare</keyword> will be world's largest government-run insurance scheme of its kind. </li></ul>India spends only 1.2% of its GDP on healthcare. And with that figure, the country ranks in lower than Singapore that has one of the lowest public health expenditures in the world at 2.2% amongst countries with significant United Health Care (UHC) services. If that 1.2% was not a figure dismal enough, India spends<a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS"> 2.5%</a> of its GDP for military purposes. It is time the country resets its priorities. With<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/healthcare-costs-drove-55-million-indians-below-poverty-line-in-the-last-two-decades/articleshow/64573439.cms"> 55 million Indians</a> falling below the poverty line in a single year because of heavy medical expenses and no help from the government, the poor also have very little to choose from when it comes to public and private healthcare. While public healthcare maybe the best that they can afford, the standards of public hospitals are deplorable, and private facilities are far too expensive. India's per capita public expenditure on health was as low as ₹621 in 2009-10. Though it increased to ₹1,112 ($16) in 2015-16, it seems almost absurd when compared to countries like the US and the UK with expenditures of $4,802 and $3,500 respectively. But perhaps, things can change now. To make the situation better, the government has finally passed the National Health Policy (NHP) which commits to spending 2.5% of the GDP on healthcare with a special focus on the underprivileged. Dr Ravi Wankhedkar told <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/govt-spends-only-1-2-of-gdp-on-healthcare-in-india/articleshow/60963195.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">The Times of India</a> that the national president of Indian Medical Association (IMA) for 2018, the spending should have been raised to at least 5%. NHP will also extend its focus on shifting from “sick care” or cure to “wellness” or prevention. The policy further promises to venture into a new concept of “strategic purchasing” from the private sector to achieve the national health goals. It also has envisioned targets to reduce the Maternal Mortality Ratio, and Infant Mortality Rate significantly. The situation may improve even further with the <keyword id="3664127" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="National-Health-Protection-Scheme">National Health Protection Scheme</keyword> (NHPS) that the government is planning to launch soon. The scheme plans to target over 100 million poor families with an annual health cover of ₹0.5 million per family. Often called Modicare, once it is launched, will be world's largest government-run insurance scheme of its kind. According to the health minister, <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/JP-Nadda">JP Nadda</a>, the scheme will be able to significantly bring down the citizen’s ‘out of pocket’ expenditure on health, which pushes millions of Indians below the poverty line every year. India’s ‘out of pocket’ expenditure currently stands on 67.78% against the the world average of 18.2%, according to WHO. Though the schemes seem progressive, they have been strongly <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/centre-cleared-the-long-awaited-national-health-policy-2017/article17487845.ece">criticised by activists</a> because it scrapped a section of the final draft which proposed to make health a fundamental right. They believe that the failure to provide healthcare should have serious legal consequences and without that provision, the policy remains a hollow promise.

India spends just 1.2% of its GDP on healthcare, but a policy can change that

I take the Delhi Metro to work every morning. The subway system allocates one out of six or eight carriages exclusively for the use of <keyword id="624" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Women">women</keyword>, in the interest of safety. The remaining carriages are mostly occupied by men - I would venture to say anywhere between 80% and 90%, based on rudimentary calculations. This is usually the case all the time. It’s a stark and daily reminder of just how far India has to go in terms of solving its gender inequality problem. A recent<a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Global%20Themes/Gender%20Equality/The%20power%20of%20parity%20Advancing%20womens%20equality%20in%20Asia%20Pacific/MGI_Power-of-Parity-Asia-Pacific_Report_April-2018.ashx"> report on gender equality </a>by the Mckinsey Global Institute (MGI), the consultancy’s research division, shows that India is one of the lowest-ranked countries in the Asia-Pacific in terms of labour force participation by females and the contribution of women to GDP, based on figures from 2016. Around 18% of India’s GDP is accounted for by women, while the share of females in the country’s labour force is 25%. Only Pakistan ranks lower than India on both counts- with women contributing a mere 11% to GDP and comprising 22% of its labour force. It has a lot to gain by unleashing the productive potential of its women- who have, up until this point, been a underused resource. MGI estimates that India’s GDP, if everything were to carry on as usual, could increase by $770 billion, or 18%, by 2025 by giving women access to equal work opportunities as men. Around $550bn, or 70% of this increase, would come by just increasing the share of females in the workforce by 10%. The remaining portion of the increase in GDP would be achieved by improving the quality of work given to women and the hours worked. Too often, the report notes, women are engaged in unpaid care work or low-quality, low-paying work like cleaning. A staggering 97% of all female workers are engaged in informal sector work that isn’t regulated and doesn’t offer adequate remuneration based on hours put in. Additionally, the amount of time spent doing unpaid, household chores is lengthened by a lack of easy access to amenities such as cooking fuel and clean water. A lot of women find themselves unable to enter the formal sector due to a low level of <keyword id="6355445" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="education">education</keyword>. A <a href="https://thewire.in/economy/ten-charts-gender-inequality">report last year in the Wire</a> showed that despite achieving strong enrolment rates for females in primary schools, as a result of the Right to Education Act, the government was not able to translate this into improved rates for secondary and tertiary enrolment. A girl’s higher education is looked at as an opportunity cost. Why send her to school when she can start helping her mother take care of the house or drawing an income from manual work? Inequality in formal sector The lack of female representation in the formal sector also has a lot to do with how upper classes in Indian society function. The MGI report explained that women’s workforce participation follows a “U-shaped curve”. While women from low-income families are forced to work out of necessity, the level of female employment gets progressively lower the wealthier a family gets, owing to the fact that there is a lower need for a woman to work for pay. MGI says that this effect can be reversed if companies step up their hiring of women and give women more leadership opportunities. In most cases, the hiring practices of Indian companies reinforce the <keyword id="6484133" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="labour-participation">labour participation</keyword> gap. According to <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/548581522089881652/pdf/WPS8379.pdf">a working paper by the World Bank, </a>an analysis of over 800,000 Indian job postings showed that there was an explicit bias towards men, especially in blue-collar sectors. Further still, professions that have greater representation by women - such as teaching, health and business process outsourcing - actually paid men significantly more. A lack of legal protection and political representation India does not have any laws in place to ensure equal pay for men and women. While the government passed a law mandating 26 months paid maternity leave in April last year, it made no provision for financial support to small-and-medium sized businesses. At the time, experts felt that the law would only serve to exacerbate <a href="https://qz.com/943639/proof-that-indias-new-maternity-leave-law-could-make-it-even-harder-for-women-to-get-a-job/">discriminatory hiring practices against women.</a> The government also excluded the unorganised sector from the purview of the law, thereby offering no protection to women in temporary, self-employed or contractual roles. Worse still, the law did not make any mention of paternity leave, deciding once and for all that child-rearing was the sole responsibility of the mother. The percentage of women in India’s lower house of Parliament is tragically low, at 11%. The Women’s Reservation Bill, which reserves 33% of the seats in both houses of Parliament and state legislatures for women, has been languishing for 22 years, despite being passed in the upper house in 2010. No surprise there. Why would the leaders of a male-dominated legislature be okay with ceding their seat to a woman? The Northern states fare a lot worse There seems to be a regional aspect to India’s <keyword id="6372584" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="gender-equality">gender equality</keyword> problem. While states in the northeast and south of India, like Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Sikkim, report strong female workforce participation rates, Northern states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu &amp; Kashmir, fall significantly behind. Unsurprisingly, the level of female workforce participation was lowest in states with lower levels of adult literacy. This highlights the problem as primarily one of access to good education. In mapping out a strategy to improve gender equality in India, the government would do well to focus on states in the North first. Some progress has been made, however This is not to say that India hasn’t made any progress in curbing gender inequality. Over the past decade, it has reduced maternal mortality rates from 280 for every 100,000 births to 174. The female-to-male adult literacy ratio has also increased by 0.10 points to 0.87 while the prevalence of child marriage has declined. Financial inclusion is also being achieved, gradually, through the Jan Dhan Yojana Scheme, which has given around 300 million women access to bank accounts and savings schemes, and the Mudra Yojana microcredit programme, under which more than 6 million female entrepreneurs have received loans. But a lot more needs to be done So what does that India needs to do to unlock the potential of its women and achieve the aforementioned increase in GDP? Firstly, according to the MGI, the government needs to leverage the digital inclusion and internet penetration wave. Greater access to computer skilling and by extension, to the internet means greater access to information - educational courses, learning resources, job postings and networking opportunities. It also means access to online banking, which in turn, means access to credit and savings instruments. Secondly, there need to be skilling and vocational training programmes tailored to industries where women have the highest potential for greater participation- healthcare, hospitality, textiles and electronics assembly. Thirdly, the government needs to encourage gender diversity-focused hiring policies in the companies. Fourth, given that women do ten times more unpaid work than men, the government can help reduce the time spent on unpaid work by providing households in rural area with electricity, closer access to clean water and subsidised childcare services. Fifth, increasing the level of women in legislative bodies in India will set a good example for other industries and could kickstart a shift in societal norms. Women are an <a href="https://www.livemint.com/Politics/PyQ7hlxIkiyXlsUqq7JbOL/The-growing-importance-of-women-as-an-electoral-constituency.html">increasingly influential electoral group</a> and deserve adequate representation. Last, but most important, it needs to stimulate private investment and create enough jobs in the economy to accommodate the increase in female workers - an issue that merits its own feature story. The increase in the female labour participation rate is not low-hanging fruit that the government can pluck and qualify as a win. It transcends election cycles and requires long-term, structural reform and a broad shift in societal attitudes. It’s a massive undertaking, but with a worthy payoff. Wouldn’t it be great if there were two compartments for women in the Delhi subway? Or better yet, each compartment was equally comprised of men and women?

You Searched For "maternal mortality ratio" and got 6 results

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