Nari shakti to vikas: Focus must shift to women-led progress

Gender equality and women's empowerment is the organising idea for our brighter todays and our transformed tomorrows. In this age of acceleration, we cannot afford to wait another century to achieve gender parity. The cardinal concept of nari shakti (women's power) and of women as devis (goddesses), which is India's civilisational gift to the world, must now move from symbolic reverence to practical power and take our virasat (tradition) of respect for women into a vikas (development) pathway of women-led sustainable development.

- Lakshmi Puri

When the freedoms and life chances of half of humanity expand, societies are rewired. Gender equality is an ideal in its own right and also a powerful force multiplier of social, economic, political, technological and environmental progress. The 2015 McKinsey Global Institute report, the 2024 analysis using National Family Health Survey data, and EY’s India@100 work, together make a compelling economic case: Closing gender gaps can add 20 to 30% to GDP and is indispensable for India to become a $28-trillion economy by 2047.

India is living through a demographic moment. Our young population will yield a dividend only if it becomes a female dividend. Fertility is declining and the ambitions of girls and young women are rising. India now has near parity in higher education and around 43% of STEM students are women. After years in which women’s work was pushed into informality and invisibility, female labour force participation has begun to climb again and must translate into better quality, formal and future-ready jobs.

A defining feature of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has been targeted flagship programmes in which women are the principal labharthi (beneficiaries), combined with transversal programmes in infrastructure, health, education and social protection that are gender responsive. Scholarships, hostels and reserved seats have lifted women’s presence in higher and technical education and opened pathways into the knowledge, health, green and care economies. Digital missions and rural programmes have trained tens of millions of women and put smartphones with affordable data and Jan Dhan accounts in their hands, giving direct access to information, markets and services.