Unwanted since before birth!

 "Almost six million white-collar workers, including engineers, physicians, teachers, accountants and analysts, lost their jobs between May and August, the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said." Because of the coronavirus epidemic. "Women's share in new payroll additions fell below the 20% mark in August, part of a gradual decline in female participation in formal work over the past few months, according to government data." "Around 66% of campus graduates do not have a job offer on hand, according to a survey by job portal Naukri. "The unemployment rate in India increases with the rise in educational level, more so for females, the Parliament was informed". "Females living in rural parts of the country with up to primary level of education were the most employed over the years," "Females with PG (post graduate) or above degrees in rural areas had unemployment rate of 36.8 while those in urban areas had an unemployment rate of 19.5. Men with PG and above degrees in urban areas had an unemployment rate of 8.6." "While the pandemic has resulted in widespread job losses across multiple sectors (including 21 million salaried formal sector jobs as per one estimate), women whose participation in the workforce was already on the slide have been particularly hit," wrote Sayantan Bera. The labor force participation rate (LFPR) for women "fell sharply from 31% in 2011-12 to 23% in 2017-18", while the "work participation rate (WPR) -- a measure of the proportion of adults who work -- fell from an already low 9.15% in December 2019 to just 5.8% in August this year", according to the Azim Premji University. "According to Unicef, 650 million women alive today were married before they turned 18. India is home to 223 million or one in three of these child brides." wrote Prof Shruti Rajagopalan. "Society imposes a very high cost of raising girls on parents, especially in poor Indian families, which, attempt to reduce these costs by marrying daughters off at a young age, if they prefer to invest in sons." When women are not wanted it shows up at birth. The Sample Registration System (SRS) Statistical Report (2018) found a declining fertility rate among all women in India, wrote Rangarajan and Satia. "Biologically normal sex ratio at birth is 1,050 males to 1,000 females or 950 females to 1,000 males. The SRS reports show that sex ratio at birth in India, measured as the number of females per 1,000 males, declined marginally from 906 in 2011 to 899 in 2018." The LFPR for women in Bangladesh is 37%, as against 21% for India. As a result it is ranked at 88 in the Global Hunger Index against 102 for India and life expectancy in Bangladesh is 72 years, against 69 years for India. No wonder, per capita income in Bangladesh will be higher than in India this year. The cost of ignoring half our wealth.