WEF report: India ranks 127 in Global gender index

NEW DELHI: The World Economic Forum’s annual Gender Gap Report, 2023 has ranked India at 127 out of 146 countries in terms of gender parity- an improvement of eight places from last year.

According to the report, India has improved by 1.4 percentage points since the previous edition, marking a partial recovery toward its 2020 parity level. It has attained parity in enrolment across all levels of education.

The report stated that India has closed 64.3 per cent of the overall gender gap. However, the country has reached only 36.7 per cent parity in economic participation and opportunity. It has also pointed out that the share of women in senior positions and technical roles has dropped slightly since the last edition.

In terms of political empowerment, India has achieved 25.3 per cent parity, with women parliamentarians representing 15.1 per cent -which is the highest percentage for the country since the first report in 2006.

With available data since 2017, 18 out of 117 countries including Bolivia (50.4 per cent), India (44.4 per cent) and France (42.3 per cent) have achieved women’s representation of over 40 per cent in local governance.

The report said that for India, the 1.9 percentage point improvement in the sex ratio at birth has driven up parity after more than a decade of slow progress. However, it also highlighted that for countries like Vietnam, Azerbaijan, India, and China- the relatively low overall rankings on the Health and Survival sub-index are explained by skewed sex ratios at birth. “Compared to top scoring countries that register a 94.4 per cent gender parity at birth, the indicator stands at 92.7 per cent for India (albeit an improvement over last edition) and below 90 per cent for Vietnam, China, and Azerbaijan,” it said.

Overall, the report said gender parity globally has recovered to pre-covid levels but the pace of change has stagnated as converging crises slow progress.

While no country has yet achieved full gender parity, the top nine countries have closed at least 80 per cent of their gap. The report also found that the overall gender gap has closed by 0.3 percentage point from last year.

The report stated, “For the 146 countries covered in the 2023 index, the Health and Survival gender gap has closed by 96 per cent, the Educational Attainment gap by 95.2 per cent, Economic Participation and Opportunity gap by 60.1 per cent, and the Political Empowerment gap by 22.1 per cent.” Parity has advanced by only 4.1 percentage points since the first edition of the report in 2006, with the overall rate of change slowing significantly.

Closing the overall gender gap will require 131 years. At the current rate of progress, it will take 169 years for economic parity and 162 years for political parity, the report stated.

“While there have been encouraging signs of recovery to pre-pandemic levels, women continue to bear the brunt of the current cost of living crisis and labour market disruptions,” said Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director, WEF.

He further added, “An economic rebound requires the full power of creativity and diverse ideas and skills. We cannot afford to lose momentum on women’s economic participation and opportunity.”

The overall progress in 2023 is partly due to the improvement in closing the educational attainment gap, with 117 out of the 146 indexed countries now having closed at least 95 per cent of the gap.

According to the index, Iceland has closed its gender gap by more than 90 per cent, making it the most gender-equal nation in the world for the 14th year in a row.

While India’s neighboring countries- Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan has been ranked at 142, 59, 107, 116, 115 and 103 respectively. 

The Global Gender Gap Report, now in its 17th edition, benchmarks the evolution of gender-based gaps in four areas: economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; health and survival; and political empowerment. It is the longest-standing index that tracks progress in closing these gaps since its inception in 2006. It also explores the impact of recent global shocks on the gender gap crisis in the labour market.