<![CDATA[The biggest gender pay gap in Asia: why are Indian women so undervalued?]>

Now, the 35-year-old resident of Kolkata, in eastern India, can claim to have done both.

Earlier this year, Mridha became one of only 10 women in the city to be handed the keys to a "pink cab" " female-only taxis driven by women that were introduced as part of a government-run scheme.

That event marked the culmination of her lifelong battle for financial independence in a country where just 24 per cent of women enter the workforce, according to International Labour Organisation figures.

Manasi Mridha with her 'pink cab' in Kolkata. Photo: Sarita Santoshini

The reasons for this low level of female participation in the jobs market are many and varied, although one of the biggest is a lack of opportunity. Young Indian men need little more than a secondary school education to be able to find work as mechanics, drivers, sales representatives or postmen, but as Oxfam India points out in its second inequality report called "Mind the Gap", released in March, "few of these opportunities are available to women".

Indian girls frequently outperform boys in their secondary school exams, but then are unable to find suitable employment for the skills that they have. Jobs for the girls, the Oxfam report says, are few and far between " there is work for women, but much of it is in the form of menial labour on farms or building sites, which has "little appeal for girls with secondary and higher secondary education".

Not only do fewer women work in India than elsewhere, but when they do they get paid less than their counterparts in other countries. The gender wage gap in India is the highest in Asia, according to Oxfam, with women on average paid 34 per cent less than men for performing the same job with the same qualifications.

"This is an issue of inclusion and inequality," the report said. "There are economic and structural reasons behind high unemployment among women and why women even stop looking for a job."

Young Indian men need little more than a secondary school education to find work as a mechanic. Photo: AP

Mridha's story offers a glimpse of the kinds of obstacles Indian women face in their quest for independence. Born to a father who refused to contribute to her upbringing because he had wanted a son, Mridha was married off by her mother at age 15 " cutting short her education. When her husband subsequently died in an accident a few years later, both Mridha's family and her husband's abandoned her and her two children.

Unable to find work in the rural town she called home, she began to travel to Kolkata by train every day to work odd jobs as a domestic helper, manual labourer, or carer.

This continued until 2016, when she heard about a driver training programme being offered by the Azad Foundation " an NGO that aims to empower resource-poor Indian women by providing them with knowledge and skills.

"[Driving] is considered a man's job, but I have the same financial needs that a man would," Mridha said. "My entire life has been a challenge so I decided to take this up as a challenge as well. I would drive and successfully do a man's job."

In India, child care is overwhelmingly a woman's responsibility. Photo: Reuters

In addition to being excluded from the workforce because of their gender, Indian women also find it difficult to hold down a job "because of the high burden of unpaid care work in households which is overwhelmingly a female responsibility", the Mind the Gap report said. "There are also social barriers to women's mobility outside the house which prevents them from engaging in paid labour."

Charity Troyer Moore, director for South Asia economics research at Yale University, said that constraining women to the home "likely makes public spaces increasingly male-dominated, and may make going out seem less safe, and actually be less safe, for women".

"There is a macroeconomic rationale for encouraging women to participate in the labour force: women may have different ideas and perspectives than men, based on their unique life experiences," she said.

"When men dictate the narratives in the public and private sector, the voice of half the population may not be heard " and we are missing out on the many innovations and ideas that women could bring."

Exceptions to the rule: Indian policewomen practise kicks during a self-defence class in New Delhi. Photo: AFP

One way of levelling the playing field is through vocational training, such as that offered by the Pratham Institute, where Medha Uniyal is a programme director.

"If we were to actually create a more enabling environment and ecosystem for girls to receive information on where to get jobs, if we were to provide them training, and subsequent support when they get a job, that could actually change things," Uniyal said.

But an important part of this process is addressing the challenges that women who migrate to cities for work face, such as finding safe accommodation, navigating urban areas using public transport and opening bank accounts, according to Uniyal.

There is also a general lack of support in India for working mothers, so educated women who do manage to find a fulfilling job will often have to choose between having a career or a family.

Shreya " whose name has been changed for this story " is a mother of two living in suburban Mumbai. She used to work for a multinational company, but had to give it up so that she could spend more time with her offspring " despite finding the job rewarding and being paid well.

"Child care at work or the option to work from home are the two things that would have helped me to continue," she said.

An Indian woman carries a child on a hot summer's day in Hyderabad. Photo: AP

On average, women in India spend almost 352 minutes per day on unpaid work such as chores, childcare and looking after elderly parents, as opposed to just 52 minutes by their male counterparts, according to Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development statistics.

Yet this time does not have to be unpaid " it could be monetised. A 2017 report for the International Trade Union Confederation estimated that if India invested just 2 per cent of its GDP in the health and care sector " which along with education, is one of two economic spheres in which Indian women are more highly represented " it would create nearly 11 million new jobs.

There are no guarantees that such jobs would be well paid, however.

India already relies on a veritable army of female community health workers to implement its social policies, but they continue to be overburdened and underpaid.

Teaching too, offers little financial reward " despite being one of the "safest" choices for many educated women, as the profession enjoys greater acceptance among many Indian families and communities.

Teaching enjoys greater acceptance as a profession among many Indian families and communities. Photo: AFP

Monju Jaiswal, a teacher at a government high school in the northeastern state of Assam, said she had worked "in the private sector receiving a paltry sum as salary for about a decade" before landing something more substantial. "I did not want to quit, [because] at least I was working and contributing to society in some way," she said.

For Mridha, meanwhile, the responsibility of raising her children alone in an unsympathetic environment appears to have been the catalyst that led her to overcome the massive social barriers that prevent so many women in India from finding work.

Enforced independence gave her the freedom she needed to find a job, and although her journey has been far from easy, she believes women like her are clearing the path for others who dream of working too.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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