The Indian woman is not okay

This is hardly the kind of news one likes to read on a Sunday set aside to celebrate “women’s contribution to society”. But while we raise a toast to women’s march beyond mere equality with men, here are two sobering thoughts for both the sexes to ponder over on International Women’s Day: One, more than two-thirds of working women in India suffer from lifestyle diseases, and we are not talking about shopping; and two, when it comes to the real domain of power, the institution vested with the capacity to bring about change — the Parliament — women hold a piddling 18 per cent of the seats in parliaments around the world. That leaves no doubt which gender runs the world.

According to a study released on Saturday by the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Assocham), 68 per cent of working women surveyed in the age bracket of 21-52 years were found to be suffering from lifestyle ailments such as obesity, depression, chronic backache, diabetes and hypertension.

As 27 per cent of females in urban India are employed, their health issues are a major concern both for society and business, said the study, titled “Preventive Healthcare and Corporate Female Workforce.”

It said long hours and working under strict deadlines cause up to 75 per cent of working women to suffer from depression or general anxiety disorder, compared to women with lesser levels of psychological demands at work. Work pressure and deadlines have led 53 per cent of the respondents to skip meals and go for junk food.

Women employed in sectors that demand more time such as media, knowledge process outsourcing and touring jobs are unable to take leave when unwell, and force themselves to work mainly due to job insecurity, especially during the current financial meltdown, the report said.

However, it said, factors such as exposure to industrial pollutants and environmental toxins, poor quality of sleep, lack of exercise and sunlight exposure, poor nutrition, excessive intake of alcohol, and drug abuse also cause depression.

Also, the pressures of balancing workplace and home lead to women ignoring their health.

According to the chamber, 77 percent of respondents said they avoided routine check-ups.  

It said 47 percent of respondents spend less than Rs.500 on healthcare in a year, while 22 percent spend in the range of Rs.500-Rs.5,000 as they suffer ailments such as obesity, depression and spondylitis. Twenty-nine percent of the sample population spend in the range of Rs.5,000-Rs.50,000 on healthcare annually; they were found afflicted with high or low blood pressure, diabetes, heart diseases, asthma, urinary infection and arthritis.

Meanwhile, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, in its annual report card, has revealed that women hold just over 18 percent of the seats in parliaments around the world, a 60 percent increase since 1995 but a long distance from equality with men in national legislative bodies.

“The challenges that women face in accessing politics are immense,” said Philippines Senator Pia Cayetano, the president of the IPU committee of women parliamentarians, stressing that on average fewer than one in five legislators is a woman. “Prejudices and cultural perceptions about the role of women in society are among the greatest obstacles to women’s entry.”

During 2008, parliamentary elections and renewals took place in 54 countries and women’s representation increased to 18.3 percent - up from 17.7 percent last year and 11.3 percent in 1995, the IPU report said.

The UN Economic and Social Council had set a target of having a minimum of 30 percent women lawmakers in all parliaments by 1995. The UN women’s conference in Beijing in 1995 noted that little progress had been made in achieving that target, and the IPU and many women’s groups started promoting the election of female legislators.

According to the IPU, 15 percent of parliamentary chambers reached the 30 percent goal for the first time in 2008. That translates to 39 out of 264 chambers in 32 countries.

Forty percent of those chambers are in Europe, 33 percent in Africa and 23 percent in Latin America, the report said. At the other end of the spectrum, however, 25 percent of parliamentary chambers have less than 10 percent women members and Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Micronesia have never had a woman parliamentarian.

“Asia has registered the slowest rate of progress in terms of women’s access to parliament over the past 15 years, reaching a regional average of 17.8 percent,” the IPU said. It cited significant gains in Nepal where women took 32.8 percent of the seats, a contrast to Iran where women won just 2.8 percent of seats.

“It is unfortunate that we are not seeing progress being made across all parliaments of the world,” IPU President Theo-Ben Gurirab said in a statement. “While there were some impressive gains made in 2008, particularly in Africa, where Rwanda’s lower house elected a majority of women members, more needs to be done in those countries where women are largely absent from decision-making bodies.”

Rose Mukantabana, speaker of Rwanda’s Chamber of Deputies which is the only body to have a majority of women members - 56.3 percent - told reporters that the high female representation is the result of a quota of 30 percent of seats set aside for women.