India the only developing country to mandate female inclusion in corporate boards: World Bank

The World Bank in its recent report, “Women, Business and the Law 2016” reported that legal barriers to the economic advancement of women are widespread, shutting them out of certain jobs, limiting their access to credit, and leaving them unprotected against violence in many economies around the world. Key findings at global level: •        Legal gender differences are widespread: 155 of the 173 economies covered have at least one law impeding women’s economic opportunities. •        The total number of legal gender differences across 173 economies is 943. •        In 100 economies, women face gender-based job restrictions. •        46 of the economies covered have no laws specifically protecting women from domestic violence. •        In 18 economies, husbands can legally prevent their wives from working. •        Lower legal gender equality is associated with fewer girls attending secondary school relative to boys, fewer women working or running businesses and a wider gender wage gap. •        Over the past two years, 65 economies carried out 94 reforms increasing women’s economic opportunities. Regional level – South Asia At regional level, the report states that women in South Asia continue to trail their peers in many other parts of the world, as discriminatory laws thwart their economic advancement. Several economies from the South Asia region are among the most restrictive in the world in the dimensions measured affecting women’s entrepreneurship and employment.  The region as a whole has been lagging in enacting reforms in the areas measured by the report, with only 3 reforms made in 2 economies in the past two years.   Scenario in India India, the region’s largest economy with 612 million women, job restrictions remain widespread, with women not allowed to work in mining or in jobs that require lifting weights above a certain threshold or working with glass. The law also prohibits women from jobs “involving danger to life, health or morals.” In addition, there are no laws to protect women against sexual harassment in public places, protections which exist in 18 other economies around the world. In the last two years, India undertook one reform in the areas monitored by the report. By introducing a law mandating at least one female member on the board of publicly listed companies, India became the only developing country and one of only nine countries in the world to mandate female inclusion on corporate boards.