Lindsay Pereira: Business first, people later

Why do successive governments spend so much time and energy patting themselves on the back for all the wrong reasonsI sometimes wonder why successive governments bother with the pretence of showing that things are being effectively managed and that they are working hard towards improving the quality of our lives when most of us know that the only thing they want to focus on is Public Relations Its why a lot of time and energy as well as money that may or may not be theirs to spend in the first place was recently spent by our current bunch of elected politicians in order to inform anyone who cared to listen that India is now a marginally easier place to do business inWhat ease of doing business The government hasnt said a word about why it didnt give us access to our own money for a few dark months early this year File picApparently our glorious nation jumped a record 30 places in the World Banks ease of doing business ranking which is supposed to make us all feel a little better about ourselves This doesnt necessarily mean that starting a business is any less stressful that it was say a month ago only that there are now a few more countries who make the lives of their citizens a lot more unnecessarily complicated than our own country does It doesnt necessarily mean you wont have to struggle with bribing a few government employees at some point down the road either because everyone with half a brain knows that India is as serious about tackling corruption as Salman Khan is about making an Oscarnominated filmNone of this stopped the government from going into PR overdrive though talking about how this will drive growth create millions of new jobs and add lakhs to our shrinking middleclass bank accounts if we will simply vote the same bunch of people to power one more time It hasnt said a word about the last time it promised money in our accounts nor has it explained why it didnt give us access to our own money for a few dark months early this year because explanations arent necessary when you can simply distract millions of us with nonissuesWhat the government chose not to focus on was the second piece of information which affects more millions than the reducing of a few forms and processes ever will This report came from the World Economic Forum which has been tracking the progress being made by the world towards better parity between the sexes Naturally reports like this are amusing in India where concepts like equal pay can only be discussed after we first acknowledge that we have gone out of our way historically to deny that women are born equal to begin withAccording to the WEF report there was a bit of progress towards parity in some countries over the past decade but its Global Gender Gap Report shows that this has come to a stop Our glorious land where mothers and sisters are respected by everyone all the time except for the 365 days when they are not has reportedly slipped 21 places to 108 China and Bangladesh now treat their women better presumably because they arent as obsessed with cows as some of us are Worse Indias ranking is supposedly 10 notches lower than it was in 2006 when the Forum started measuring the gender gapSome believe this drop is on account of fewer women participating in the economy and lower wages being offered to them The latter is easily verifiable simply ask the nearest maid or day labourer what she earns as opposed to what her husband gets for the exact same job The former is worrying though because it points to a lack of faith If fewer women want to get into the job market or drive the economy in some way a sensible government would ask itself why that is What does it say about our work places or the opportunities we provide or the promises we make or dont make to encourage more women to get out of their homes Why are so many women choosing to opt out Our governments choose to respond to statistics like these with silence because hashtags about gender inequality dont make for great social media campaignsThe Forum says women will have to wait an estimated 217 years for the pay gap to close I dont suppose it will happen here though because our government of that distant future may still have more important things to worry about mdash like how to ensure we are more patriotic how to make sure filmmakers dont offend religious sensibilities and how to make the rich get richer just a little bit easierWhen he isnt ranting about all things Mumbai Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet He tweets lindsaypereira Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycom