Mixed Tale of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Himachal Pradesh :

Himachal Pradesh has a strong track record supporting women’s empowerment and gender equality, compared to its neighbors and to the rest of India. From access to health and education to participation in the labor market and in community decision making, being born in Himachal Pradesh brings distinct advantages for women and girls. But there is more to this. In some areas women’s outcomes are actually poor, and in others areas women are continuing to make progress, claiming more spaces, one step at a time. The positive development narrative in Himachal Pradesh holds true, for the most part, for women’s access to markets and services. Part of the explanation lies in cultural factors and part of it is a reflection of the state’s overall development and investments in public service delivery, which, among other groups, benefited women. For instance, availability of water and fuel sources in remote areas probably translated into reduced time for women and girls in fetching these resources, allowing more time on well-being enhancing activities. Govt. of Himachal has also invested in a number of programs that target women, such as safety nets for widows and poor women.

Education :

Government of Himachal  offers financial incentives for girls to attend school and puts communities in charge of monitoring enrollment and retention of girls in schools. Govt.  also focused on increasing toilet facilities, which is likely to have had a positive impact on girls’ school attendance. In light of its longstanding policy and program efforts, it is hardly surprising that Himachal Pradesh looks “different” from the rest of India in many gendered outcomes. For example, it has one of the highest rural female labor force participation rates in India, with up to two-thirds of its rural female population (and up to 70 percent of its secondary school–educated rural female population) working or actively looking for work over the past three decades, as shown earlier.

Fertility Rate :

Himachal Pradesh’s fertility rate is very low, which has positive ramifications on the well-being of women and girls. Unlike other neighboring states, girls in Himachal Pradesh are not married off at very young ages. Only 12 percent of women (aged 20–24) were married before the age of 18 in 2005–6, compared with 40 percent in Haryana and over 50 percent each in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh.

Emloyment opportunities :

Although Himachal Pradesh’s progress in women’s access to markets and services has been impressive, especially considering its difficult topography, there are gaps in other areas. Perhaps the starkest divergence from the overall trend toward greater gender equality is the female-to male ratio at birth. Despite improvements in recent years, sex-selective abortions in Himachal Pradesh are very much in evidence, especially in urban areas. New gender-based inequalities seem to be emerging in the labor market and in education, two areas in which Himachal Pradesh previously had made significant progress. For example, our analysis of the NSS data shows that the gender gap in labor force participation is twice as large in urban areas compared to rural areas. Women appear to face multiple disadvantages in urban areas, where they are mostly employed in jobs with lower status and wages (such as teaching, clerks, assistants, and servants), while their male counterparts dominate higher-ranking public service positions.

Social evils :

Data on spousal violence against women in Himachal Pradesh presents a puzzling picture. The NFHS indicates that only 6–7 percent of ever-married women in Himachal Pradesh report experiencing spousal violence. This is much lower than the neighboring states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh, where levels of spousal violence hover at around 40 percent. The prevailing discourse in Himachal Pradesh and the work of government agencies and non governmental organizations (NGOs) consider these numbers to be unrealistic and likely underreported. The Himachal Pradesh Human Development Report suggests that the incidence of crimes against women is in fact quite high.

Recently there have been a large number of press reports of rapes in Himachal Pradesh, where previously such reports were few. Whether these reports reflect increased awareness and reporting or higher incidence is difficult to say.

What is evident is that going forward, proactive policy and programmatic interventions are needed to prevent domestic violence, improve women’s ownership of assets, and make a dent in the adverse child female-to-male ratios to move toward greater gender equality in Himachal Pradesh.