"54 per cent people think it is okay to beat a woman if she leaves home without permission"

Everyone, brace yourself. This article talks about the findings of the recently-released Oxfam Inequality Equality Report 2019 that might take you aback and force you to brood over the deplorable condition of women in India. The report, that is going viral, highlights the harsh truth about the pay gap, sexual harassment and the mentality of people with some compelling statistics. In fact, a survey of 1,000 households in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh revealed some shocking facts including how 54 per cent of the participants believed it's okay to beat a woman if she left home without permission. Read on to know more...

Let’s talk about the unpaid work done by women in our country that includes looking after the household and kids. Most of the times it is assumed to be her ‘duty’ and probably, we never see it from the monetary aspect. Going by the findings of this report, this unpaid work is worth 3.1 per cent of the country’s GDP!

Women spend 312 minutes every day on an average in urban areas and 291 minutes in rural areas for such work. On the other hand, men spend merely 29 minutes in urban and 32 minutes in rural areas on unpaid care work.

The report also talked about a 1,000 household survey they did in the states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. Unfortunately, 53 per cent of the participants felt it is okay to harshly criticise a woman if she fails to care well for children and 33 per cent found it is okay to beat her up for the same reason. Similarly, it was acceptable for 60 per cent of the participants to criticise her if she left a dependent or ill adult unattended and 36 per cent found it acceptable to beat her for this.

Shockingly, 54 per cent felt it was okay to beat women if they left the home without asking and 86 per cent did not see anything wrong in criticising them for the same. Further, 41 per cent confessed it was okay to beat her up if she did not cook the meal for the men in the family and 42 per cent felt she should be beaten is she did not fetch water or wood for the family.

The report confirmed that women were paid less than men for the same job and the household where women were the sole breadwinners tended to be poorer.

While the much famous #MeToo movement helped the women in the organised workforce to raise their voice, females in unorganised sector had no formal mechanism for speaking up against sexual misconduct. As a result, a majority of women in informal sector either continued to work under exploitive conditions or gave up their job.

The global scenario on the unpaid work done by women is not rosy either. The report revealed such work equalled to whopping 10 trillion dollars that comes out to be around 43 times the annual income of one of the biggest technology companies Apple.

(All images used here are representational)