In a world of increasing reservations for everything, the women’s reservation bill never happened. Everywhere else, there happens reservation,sub reservations, and even more,year after year when the upliftment is already done.
Generations become educated, wealthy, and they still don’t forget the reservation. It makes no sense if you want to help those who need it economically.
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When it comes to women, everyone looks the other way. The simple truth is we don’t have the numbers at the table where policy decisions are made. No one remembers that everyone has a mother—the mother who put all her plans on the backburner.
But if it comes to giving her a little slack during promotions, postings, work from home, childcare leave, and maternity leave, it’s a different ballgame.
After I finished my post-grad in Delhi, I came back to Kolkata to serve people. Appearing from interviews in several places was more about when I planned to start a family than my qualifications, experience, and abilities. It was shocking.
Then I started a job with a private setup. I conceived in 2011. Worked till the week before my delivery date. I received a month of unpaid maternity leave and went back to my job. Reality check time for me. I knew I needed to plan my life better going forward,
Flexibility and value that I bring,should come first together with benefits.
This new normal of COVID19 has shown work from home productively is a hundred percent possible. If there’s a will to implement. The next time someone says work from home is not feasible, send them all the work records during COVID times.
That could help them sing a different tune. Women who are getting professional education, building a career, and having a family to support, often push the timeline for becoming moms.
This can be a challenge later.
If society, Government, and corporations showed the goodwill needed to help women planning a family, the brain drain of talented women would be highly avoided. It would also help the Government retain a productive, hardworking, sincere, loyal, and creative workforce that women represent.
The numbers speak
There’s good news, though. An article published in Livemint in 2019 showed that women’s representation in Indian companies has increased from 21 % five years ago to 31% in nontechnical roles and 26% for technical purposes. Women in company boards increased from 5% to 13%. Gender diversity is highest in Bengaluru, followed by Mumbai and Pune.
The bad news
- Only 11% of senior leaders are women
- 20% Mid-level
- 38 %Junior role
These figures speak for themselves.
But I am in counting the blessings kind of mood.
- I am grateful that fertilitydost allowed me to write about the issue I feel strongly about. I am thankful that Government services give you maternity leave and up to two years of childcare leave, in most places in India.
- I am grateful for my family and being a doctor. Education gives you better opportunities and more flexibility.
- I am grateful for being able to write and spread awareness and help people in these times.
- I am a woman and a mother of a daughter. I need to speak up and Break the silence if I want things to change.
Women are disciplined when it comes to working from home and getting things done. The multinational companies and Government already have a pool of educated, trained women professionals, who went on a sabbatical following giving birth. It’s time to utilize their expertise to re-build a truly digital equal-opportunities India , in a post COVID world
The time is now. If you leave us behind, can you go far?
Not quite so sure you can use the data from the initial phases of the pandemic to prove productivity claims. When everything was shut down and we were homebound- yup, it worked. Now that coffee shops are open, we can leave the house, etc, productivity is waning. (The drop is also related to the fact that many workers put in way more than an 8 hour days at the start of quarantine- they now want a bigger separation between work and home.)
If there is anything positive that can come out of COVID-19 maybe it will be about how working at home can be productive. Very interesting topic.