An alarming two billion women and girls worldwide lack access to any form of social protection, such as cash benefits, unemployment insurance, pensions or healthcare, according to a recent report released by UN Women.
The World Survey on the Role of Women in Development report was released October 15, 2024, focusing on the theme, ‘Harnessing social protection for gender equality, resilience and transformation’. An edition of the paper is submitted every five years to the Economic and Financial Committee of the United Nations General Assembly.
Lack of maternity benefits, climate change, impact women
Globally, more than 63% women still give birth without access to maternity benefits. This lack of financial support during maternity leave can severely impact the economic stability of women as well as the well-being of their children.
According to the report, gender-specific risks and vulnerabilities are exacerbated by factors like conflict, climate change and economic shocks. Women are also disproportionately impacted by recent inflation with rising food and energy prices hitting them particularly hard.
Women aged 25 to 34 are 25% more likely than men of the same age to live in households facing extreme poverty. This disparity is worsened by conflict and climate change, with women in fragile settings being 7.7 times more likely to experience extreme poverty than those in stable environments, says the report.
“The impact is always greater on vulnerable populations. Be it COVID-19 or flood, the first to be affected are women. If we look at the underlying factors, it comes back to patriarchal norms. Even when they distribute relief material or cash for women during the floods, it’s men who go first to collect it,” says Prasanna Gettu, founder of The International Foundation for Crime Prevention and Victim Care (PCVC).
What is social protection?
Social protection for women refers to a range of policies and programmes that are specifically designed to reduce poverty, inequality, and vulnerability among women. It aims to ensure that women have access to essential services, resources, and opportunities for empowerment.
Why is social protection of women important?
Due to their reproductive roles and social and cultural norms, women go through periods of vulnerability. They are affected by poverty, violence, and discrimination. Women often take on caregiving roles, which limits their access to paid work. Social protection can help support them with childcare services and maternity benefits. Women also have specific healthcare needs related to reproductive and maternity health care and programmes need to address these and improve women’s access to it.
Despite laws against discrimination, there are still wage gaps, with women being paid less than men in the same role. Social protection programmes can promote fair employment practices.
Social protection programmes are a powerful tool to reduce poverty and gender inequality. It can combat discrimination against girl children, the risk of unemployment women face when they are pregnant and give birth, and provide a safety net against poverty and lack of care in old age.
However, globally, only a minority of women are adequately covered by or have access to existing social protection schemes.
Indian Scenario
India has several social protection programmes aimed at supporting women, focusing on empowerment, health, education, and economic security. For instance, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao is a social campaign that aims to improve the status of girls and women by improving the child sex ratio and addressing issues of gender discrimination.
Mahila E-Haat is an initiative for meeting aspirations and needs of women entrepreneurs. It is an online marketing platform for women, where participants can display their products, and help them become financially independent and self-reliant.
Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, a flagship scheme, provides clean cooking fuel such as LPG available to rural and deprived households, reducing health hazards.
India also has One Stop Centres (OSC), that support women affected by violence, in private and public spaces, within the family, community and at the workplace. They offer legal, medical, and counselling services.
The Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY), a government-backed savings scheme for the welfare of girl children, aims to provide financial security for a girl’s higher education and marriage.
Challenges
“On paper we have everything, as per the Indian Constitution, you cannot discriminate against anyone, men and women should be given equal wages and there are special laws and schemes for the social protection of women and children. But it’s all just on paper,” says advocate and social activist Sudha Ramalingam. “People need to be made aware of these laws and schemes and we should devise mechanisms to ensure that the benefits reach the people. NGOs and social activists need to help with the coordination and be part of task monitoring bodies,” says Sudha, who is the founder of Manonmani Trust, which gives free food and shelter to the needy. “We also provide free tuition and constitutional rights education to children in rural areas so that they know what their rights are,” she says.
Prasanna says that the central government comes up with many welfare schemes for women that offer them social protection. “However, these are often not continued. The central government launches initiatives for a few years and then they have to be taken over by the state governments, but they are often not continued,” she says, adding that state governments do launch their own initiatives addressing issues such as access to education for girls and nutritious meal schemes. “While these schemes are aimed at empowering girls and women, there is very little focus on gender-based violence. More concerted effort is required on innovation to look at changing needs.”
Help from NGOs
The promotion of gender equality and women empowerment is a key aspect of UNDP’s Sustainable Development Goals. A community, society, and country prosper when its women are empowered. According to Smile Foundation, skilled women join India’s workforce and contribute to economy; healthy women lay down the foundation for healthy families; aware mothers ensure that their children go to school; empowered women become change makers and support other women.
The Foundation’s women empowerment programme Swabhiman, initiated in 2005, reaches out to marginalised and socially excluded women with interventions in nutrition, healthcare and livelihood.
The mainstay of Swabhiman programme’s community outreach is through change agents, peer educators, community health educators and Swabhiman health volunteers. These change agents are identified from the community and empowered through regular training sessions on relevant issues. They further educate and spread awareness among their peers in the community.
Reproductive and child health, the pilot initiative of Swabhiman, aims to provide basic primary healthcare, address issues of pregnancy, newborn and child health, and facilitate access to public and private health facilities. Efforts are made to provide accessible and comprehensive reproductive health services, education, and resources to women of childbearing age. This includes promoting family planning methods, offering counselling on contraception, and ensuring access to contraceptives and family planning clinics.