On Saturday, March 8, 2025, the world marks International Women's Day under the urgent banner ‘Accelerate Action’ — a call that feels more desperate than ever. With one woman or girl killed every 10 minutes by a family member or partner globally, according to United Nations data, and one in four countries reporting a rollback of women’s rights in 2024, the day isn’t just about celebration. It’s a reckoning. In India, the Ministry of Women and Child Development is hosting its most high-profile event yet, featuring President Droupadi Murmu delivering the keynote, alongside Union Ministers Annpurna Devi and Arjun Ram Meghwal, and Anna Bjerde, Managing Director of the World Bank. The event isn’t just symbolic. It’s the launchpad for new, concrete steps — and the timing couldn’t be more critical.
Why ‘Accelerate Action’ Feels Like a Lifeline
Three decades after the landmark Beijing Declaration, progress feels fragile. In the U.S., the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade sent shockwaves through global feminist movements. In Poland, Hungary, and Brazil, reproductive rights have been rolled back. Even in places with strong legal frameworks, digital bias is quietly eroding equality: António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General, warned in his March 4, 2025 message that algorithms are reinforcing workplace discrimination and limiting women’s access to credit, jobs, and education online. "When the doors of equal opportunity are open for women and girls, everyone wins," he said. But those doors? They’re being bolted shut in too many places.India’s Five-Pillar Strategy: From Policy to Paycheck
India’s response isn’t reactive — it’s structural. The government has spent a decade building a framework targeting five core rights. First, education: Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, launched in 2015, tackled skewed sex ratios in states like Haryana and Punjab by incentivizing girl child education and survival. Second, financial security: the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana lets parents open tax-free savings accounts for daughters, with over 70 million accounts opened since 2015. Third, healthcare: Mission Indradhanush ensures 90% immunization coverage for pregnant women and children in high-risk districts, while the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandhana Yojana delivers exactly Rs 5,000 in three installments to first-time mothers — money that often buys nutrition, transport to clinics, or even a mobile phone to access health information.Fourth, safety: Though laws exist, implementation remains uneven. The government has expanded helplines and fast-track courts, but rural women still face barriers. Fifth, economic participation: Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana has disbursed over Rs 28 lakh crore since 2015, with 72% going to women. In 2024, the loan cap was raised to Rs 20 lakhs — a move that’s already sparked a 19% surge in women-led startups in tier-2 cities, per NITI Aayog data.
The Global Backlash: When Progress Is Reversed
The irony isn’t lost on scholars. "We fought for decades to win reproductive autonomy, and now we’re watching it vanish," said Dr. Kristen Ghodsee, author of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism. In 2024, 27 countries introduced legislation restricting gender-based violence protections, while 14 cut funding for women’s shelters. In Afghanistan, girls are banned from secondary schools. In the U.S., 14 states now criminalize abortion providers — and in some, even women seeking care face legal risk. India’s initiatives, while strong, operate in a world where the U.N. estimates that gender-based violence has increased by 22% since 2020 — and digital harassment has become the new silent epidemic.What Happens After March 8?
The event in New Delhi isn’t just a speech. It’s a checkpoint. The Ministry has signaled that new data dashboards tracking gender pay gaps across 11 major industries will go live by June. A pilot program to train 10,000 rural women as AI literacy coaches is also expected to be announced — a direct response to Guterres’ call to "unlock finance for equality." Meanwhile, the World Bank is preparing a $500 million gender equity loan package for India, contingent on measurable progress in female labor force participation, which currently sits at just 24% — the lowest among major economies.Behind the scenes, the Ministry is quietly drafting amendments to the Maternity Benefit Act to include gig workers — a move that could impact over 12 million women in delivery, domestic work, and e-commerce. And for the first time, the government is requiring all public sector banks to publish gender-disaggregated lending data — transparency that could expose hidden biases.
Ambedkar’s Legacy, Today’s Challenge
"I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved," said Dr. B.R. Ambedkar — words etched into India’s constitutional DNA. Today, that measure is being tested. While urban women are breaking glass ceilings in tech and law, a girl in Jharkhand still walks 5 kilometers to fetch water. A mother in Bihar still chooses between medicine for her daughter and food for her son. The initiatives are real. The funding is historic. But change doesn’t happen in boardrooms — it happens in homes, schools, and police stations. That’s where the real work begins.Frequently Asked Questions
How does the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana specifically help women entrepreneurs in rural areas?
The scheme offers collateral-free loans up to Rs 20 lakhs, with over 72% of disbursements going to women since 2015. In rural India, where banks often require land titles or guarantors, Mudra loans let women start small businesses — from tailoring to dairy cooperatives — without needing traditional collateral. A 2024 NITI Aayog study found that 68% of rural women who received Mudra loans increased household income by at least 35% within 18 months.
What is the current status of the gender pay gap in India’s formal workforce?
According to the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Gender Gap Report, India’s gender pay gap in the formal sector remains at 34%, worse than Bangladesh and Nepal. The gap widens to 47% in tech and finance. The Ministry’s new data dashboards, set to launch in June, will track this by industry and state — a first step toward accountability.
Why is digital bias a growing threat to women’s rights?
AI-driven hiring tools, loan algorithms, and job platforms often reflect historical biases. A 2023 MIT study found that women in India were 27% less likely to be shown high-paying job ads on social media. Similarly, fintech apps often deny credit to women without male co-applicants. These invisible barriers limit economic mobility — which is why the U.N. and India’s new AI literacy program aim to train women to recognize and challenge these systems.
How does the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana impact long-term gender equality?
By giving parents a financial incentive to invest in daughters — with interest rates over 8% and tax-free growth — the scheme shifts cultural perceptions. Over 70 million accounts have been opened since 2015. Studies show families with SSY accounts are 41% more likely to keep girls in school past age 16 and 33% less likely to marry them off early. It’s not just savings — it’s social change.
What’s being done to address gender-based violence beyond laws?
India has expanded One Stop Centres in 700 districts, offering medical, legal, and counseling support. But the real innovation is community-level intervention: trained women volunteers in 12 states now use WhatsApp-based reporting systems to alert authorities about threats in real time. In Odisha, this reduced domestic violence reporting delays by 62% in 2024.
Will India’s new initiatives be enough to close the gender gap by 2030?
Not without systemic change. While programs like Mudra and Beti Bachao are effective, they don’t fix patriarchal norms in households or workplaces. The World Bank warns that India needs to increase female labor force participation from 24% to at least 40% to meet SDG targets. That requires affordable childcare, flexible work policies, and male engagement — areas still underfunded. The March 8 announcements are a start — but the finish line is decades away.