[{"bbox": [97, 153, 784, 179], "category": "Section-header", "text": "### Addressing Gender Based Violence and Harassment in the textile industry:"}, {"bbox": [97, 180, 1135, 260], "category": "Text", "text": "Violence against women and girls brings huge economic costs to any society. Research indicates that the cost of violence against women could amount to around 2 per cent of the global gross domestic product (GDP). Female Labour Force Participation in India is constrained by unsafe public, private, digital, and work places."}, {"bbox": [97, 285, 1135, 684], "category": "Text", "text": "The Indian textiles and apparel industry contributes over 2 per cent to the country's GDP and is the second largest employment provider in India after agriculture, providing direct employment to 45 million people and 100 million people in allied industries. As regards trade, the share of textile, apparel and handicrafts in India's total exports was 11.4% in 2020-21. Within this industry, the Ready Made Garment exports is set to grow at 12-13% (compound annual growth rate) and surpass EUR 28 billion by 2027. India is the 3rd largest exporter of textiles and apparel in the world, with USA as its top destination (27%), followed by the EU (18%). A study by Fair Wear Foundation in 2013 found that approximately 60 per cent of surveyed Indian and Bangladeshi garment factory workers are estimated to have experienced \"some type of harassment at work, verbal abuse or physical abuse\". A global poll carried out by Care International as part of their campaign #ThisIsNotWorking found that significant numbers of men believe that it is acceptable to sexually harass and abuse women at work (CARE, 2018). Aggravated by the rape and killing of a 20-year-old Dalit garment worker at H&M supplier Natchi Apparels by her supervisor in January 2021, H&M recognised the need to create an industry-wide coalition/platform comprising of brands, manufacturers, suppliers, government, civil society, trade unions, workers, with a view to support actions at every level towards response and prevention of any form of violence against women and girls in the textile and apparel industry, including in the hosting communities."}, {"bbox": [97, 710, 1135, 763], "category": "Section-header", "text": "### Ensuring availability of gender statistics to develop policies that support women in the above areas, and to track progress on SDG 5:"}, {"bbox": [97, 764, 1135, 1108], "category": "Text", "text": "Understanding how trends can impede or enable progress towards gender equality and sustainable development is vital for effective policy and dedicated schemes development and ultimately for SDG implementation. However, availability of robust gender statistics is critical to track progress on SDG 5. As of December 2020, only 44.3% of indicators needed to monitor the SDGs from a gender perspective were available in India, with gaps in key areas, in particular: unpaid care and domestic work, key labour market indicators, such as the gender pay gap, and information and communications technology skills. In addition, many areas – such as gender and poverty, physical and sexual harassment, women's access to assets (including land), and gender / environment – lack comparable methodologies for regular monitoring. The Government produces an annual report of sex disaggregated data each year, called 'Women and Men' but such data are not fully analysed and used to inform the work on gender equality and women empowerment. Niti Aayog²⁷ is planning to release in 2023 a National Gender Index. This development offers opportunities to engage the GoI on a structure dialogue regarding gender data and statistics, not only with a view of strengthening the data collection and analytical capacities of government stakeholders at central/state levels but also with a view of identifying areas of engagement to address data gaps."}, {"bbox": [97, 1133, 807, 1159], "category": "Section-header", "text": "### Improving women's access to board and/or leadership positions within firms:"}, {"bbox": [97, 1161, 1135, 1240], "category": "Text", "text": "A UN Women study about women's leadership in the private sector found that while boards have responded to the Indian legislative mandate of appointing one independent woman director, the law has not provided an impetus to corporates to improve gender representation beyond the legal mandate."}, {"bbox": [97, 1265, 1135, 1505], "category": "Text", "text": "A Harvard Business Review study²⁸ showed that India's 2013 Companies Act was successful in significantly enlarging the pool of distinct women serving as directors and found that most boards fulfilled the quota by appointing female directors who were independent, rather than insiders — 70.4% of women appointed to previously all-male boards were classified as independent. Yet, while these newly appointed female directors in Indian boards were also considerably more educated and more likely to have political experience than their male counterparts, they were also less likely to be appointed to key board committees such as compensation or nomination committees. It also noted the problem of filling women quota positions with 'buffers' i.e. women that are associated with the men of the company, often being appointed non-meritocratically and merely acting as echo chambers of the men's opinions instead of being a voice for women."}, {"bbox": [85, 1548, 1144, 1623], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁷ NITI Aayog (abbreviation for National Institution for Transforming India) serves as the apex public policy think tank of the Government of India, and the nodal agency tasked with catalysing economic development, and fostering States participation in development and policy planning. It was established in 2015 to replace the [Planning Commission](https://planning commission.gov.in/)."}, {"bbox": [85, 1621, 852, 1647], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁸ https://hbr.org/2021/02/what-happened-when-india-mandated-gender-diversity-on-boards"}, {"bbox": [1038, 1682, 1144, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 9 of 25"}]