Indian GDP growth depends on gender parity in workforce: Christine Lagarde, IMF

Women are rising up in number to equal with men in the workforce. Even though we are far from matching the figures, the movement has begun. If you look at the rural areas women are moving out of their houses to make a career for them and not just that, they are working in farms and helping  in agriculture, learning newer techniques to increase productivity.

There is some more hope to cling on to as the International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde spoke about women empowerment and economic growth of countries at the launch of W20. W20 is a group of women leaders from the 20 largest economies of the world including India. We as a nation still need to include a lot many women in the workforce. There still remains gender disparity if we look at the whole picture.

India’s GDP will increase by a staggering 27% if the number of females is in line with that of the number of males in the workforce, according to Lagarde. The percentage increase in GDP is much higher in comparison with US and Japan, which is at 5% and 9% respectively.

“we have estimates that, if the number of female workers were to increase to the same level as the number of men, GDP in the United States would expand by 5 per cent, by 9 per cent in Japan, and by 27 per cent in India,” said Lagarde in a written keynote speech, as reported by Business Today.

Hinting upon the key role of men in women empowerment, Lagarde quoted Amartya Sen at the event. “Women are increasingly seen, by men as well as women, as active agents of change -- the dynamic promoters of social transformations that can alter the lives of both women and men,” as stated by NDTV Profit.

Lagarde also referred to the G20 summit held in November 2014 where talks of lowering down the gender gap by 25% by 2025 were going on.

“Women's empowerment is not just a fundamentally moral cause, it is also an absolute economic no-brainer,” said Lagarde in reference with the G20 summit, quotes Economic Times.

It certainly fills us up with the hope that more jobs for women will be created. And now with the advent of the facility of working from home, more women can take part in the growth of a country’s economy since they don’t need to compromise their personal life with professional life now.

Picture credit- The Financial Express