The theme of this year's International Women's Day was #BREAKTHEBIAS. Despite all the successful efforts to achieve gender equality, gender inequality still persists in different professions around the world. If this inequality is to be removed completely, then women will have to be financially independent because through this women will be able to fill the gap in gender equality. However, even today 35% of women globally are financially excluded.
Lack of education is one of the important reasons, due to which it is not able to become a part of institutional finance. Without proper education and effective education, both men and women will not be able to understand the importance of formal finance in their lives. Due to this, many people are neither able to save nor are able to avail loans or other facilities through institutional means. According to UNESCO, globally about 10% of girls aged between 6 and 11 years are being kept away from the right to education as compared to boys. And if this continues, then about 16 million girls will never be able to achieve even primary education, compared to 8 million boys.
The second biggest obstacle is to get the girls married before they are financially strong and often they do not even have their consent and after that she becomes pregnant very soon so that she is completely dependent on her husband. So if the husband loses his job or he has a loss in some business or his crop is ruined, then the woman is also affected by it because the one on whom he was dependent is himself going through a bad financial phase. In many countries, women do not have enough ID proof, due to which they are not able to take advantage of financial institutions. In many low and middle income countries, women are not allowed to go to the bank because most of the staff in banks are men. The assets held by women are often not only controlled by women, they are also controlled by men.
Will women be allowed to take loans for any business in India, many families still today resist it. Often when a family is going through a bad phase, first of all women's jewelery is sold and the jewelery which is deposited in the bank accounts Even those bank accounts are not in the name of women. The first right on the property of the family is often held by men, although in many countries women are now getting the right in property.
Although the status of women around the world is now improving in financial inclusion, this increase is not uniform and equal everywhere. Therefore it becomes necessary that women should be educated and they should be linked with the right to education. Money should be sent directly to the bank accounts of women so that they do not have to depend on the men of their family. The government has tried to reduce gender inequality through Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana is a good step, some banks keep the interest of women's education and home loans taken by them low.
Can we achieve gender equality only by making laws, but the answer is no, we also have to see that the policy makers should not be biased towards women and it is not reflected in their policies. That's why awareness is an important thing through which we can tell women about their rights. Apart from this, men also have to understand that gender equality will only lead to the welfare of the entire human society. Through primary education and financial education, we can remove gender inequality from the society as a whole.
Comentarios