India has slipped four places on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap index to 112.
- India lags behind some of its neighbours like China (106th), Sri Lanka (102nd), Nepal (101st), Brazil (92nd), Indonesia (85th) and Bangladesh (50th).
- Iceland is the world’s most gender-neutral country, while Yemen was ranked the worst at 153th place. Iceland has been the frontrunner on the Global Gender Gap Index for 11 years in a row. It’s followed by Nordic neighbours Norway, Finland and Sweden.
- As per the report, worldwide, women now hold 25.2 per cent of parliamentary lower-house seats and 21.2 per cent of ministerial positions, compared to 24.1 per cent and 19 per cent respectively last year.
Basis
- The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Gender Gap Index ranks countries according to calculated gender gap between women and men in four key areas: health, education, economy and politics. It measures women’s disadvantage compared to men, and is not a measure of equality of the gender gap.
- India ranked among countries with very low women representation on company boards (13.8 per cent), while it was even worse in China (9.7 per cent).
- The sex ratios at birth in India is 91 girls for every 100 boys which is also very low.
- India is the only country among the 153 countries studied where the economic gender gap is larger than the political one.
- With 35.4 per cent, economic opportunities for women are extremely limited in India.
India in GGI 2020
- According to the report, the economic gender gap runs particularly deep in India. Only one-third of the gap has been bridged (score of 35.4%, 149th, down 7 places). Since 2006, the gap has gotten significantly wider.
- Among the 153 countries studied, India is the only country where the economic gender gap is larger than the political gender gap. Only one-quarter of women, compared with 82% of men, engage actively in the labour market (i.e. working or looking for work)—one of the lowest participation rates in the world (145th).
- Furthermore, female estimated earned income is a mere one-fifth of male income, which is also among the world’s lowest (144th). Women only account for 14% of leadership roles (136th) and 30% of professional and technical workers.
- India ranks a low 150th on the Health and Survival subindex (94.4), as a result of the skewed sex ratio at birth: there are 91 girls born per 100 boys born, a ratio well below the natural one. Violence, forced marriage and discrimination in access to health remain pervasive.
- The situation and the trend are more positive in terms of gender gaps in education. From primary to tertiary education, the share of women attending school is systematically larger than the share of men. But a large difference persists for literacy rate; only two-thirds of women are literate compared with 82% of men. Yet the gap has been narrowing in the past decade, because the literacy rate has significantly increased among women (66%) and slightly decreased among men to 79%.
- India ranks 18th (score of 41.1%) on the Political Empowerment subindex. Of the past 50 years, the country was headed by a woman for 20 years (4th) which largely explains this strong performance. But today, female political representation is low: women make up only 14.4% of the parliament (122nd) and 23% of the cabinet (69th).
