UNDP’s HDR highlights vast gender gap in digital India

Despite rapid technology adoption in recent years, a new report has disclosed that India has a huge digital gender gap. According to the 2015 Global Human Development Report, only 39 per cent of women in India in 2013 were Internet users compared to 61 per cent of men.

The report released in Ethiopia has urged governments to act to ensure for reducing inequality, securing livelihoods and empowering individuals. As per the report, as of 2014, 2.5 billion people in Asia and the Pacific did not have access to the Internet (1.1 billion in East Asia and the Pacific region and 1.4 billion people in South Asia).

“The unconnected are typically among the poorest and most disadvantaged,” the report said. As per the report, if Internet access in developing countries were the same as in developed countries, an estimated $2.2 trillion in GDP could be generated, with more than 140 million new jobs — 44 million in Africa and 65 million in India.

The report recommended governments address the imbalance between paid and unpaid work for women – with women performing 3 times more unpaid (domestic and voluntary) work than men. Significantly, “For India, unpaid work, predominantly performed by women, is estimated at 39 percent of GDP. India’s declining workforce participation of women- from 35 per cent in 1990 to 27 percent in 2013 — has also impacted global rates,” it said.

Ironically, the report revealed that nearly 42 per cent women worldwide do not have a bank account. In 38 countries, including India, Pakistan, Mexico and Uganda, 80 per cent women are unbanked. By contrast, in Japan and South Korea, more than 90 per cent women have bank accounts.

Stressing that the government of India’s new initiative to open bank accounts could have clear development gains for women and other unbanked populations. The report, Work for Human Development also revealed that 2 billion people have moved out of low human development levels in the last 25 years.

The report revealed that globally, 74 million youth are unemployed. In India, over 10 per cent of youth are unemployed. The report puts India’s HDI value for 2014 at 0.609 — which puts the country in the medium human development category — positioning it at 130 out of 188 countries and territories. Between 1980 and 2014, India’s HDI value increased from 0.362 to 0.609, an increase of 68.1 per cent or an average annual increase of about 1.54 per cent.

“The availability and quality of work are key for human development in Asia and the Pacific, a region that is home to two-thirds of the world’s working-age population. In order to ensure that the workforce is capable of adapting to rapidly changing demands, the governments need to make strategic investments into education and health care”, said Haoliang Xu, assistant administrator and director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific.