Published on:
01 Jul 2024
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World Economic Forum
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Key findings with respect to India in global gender gap report 2024
- India has slipped two places in the global rankings to 129th in 2024 from 127th in 2023 out of 146 countries.
- Within South Asia, India ranked fifth after Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan. Pakistan ranked last in the region.
- India has closed 64.1% of its gender gap as of 2024. The slip in ranking was primarily due to small declines in 'Educational Attainment' and 'Political Empowerment' parameters, although 'Economic Participation' and 'Opportunity' scores saw slight improvements.
- India is among the countries with the lowest levels of economic parity, similar to Bangladesh, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan, and Morocco, with less than 30% gender parity in estimated earned income.
- However, India showed the best gender parity in secondary education enrolment and ranked 65th globally in political empowerment of women.
- Women's representation at the federal level, in Ministerial positions (6.9%), and in Parliament (17.2%) remains low in India.
Analysis of key findings:
- At the current glacial pace of change, it will take 134 years to reach full gender parity, well beyond the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal target.
- Only Iceland has closed over 90% of its gender gap, while the global average stands at 68.5%.
- Globally, women enjoy just two-thirds of the legal rights that men do, with a massive implementation gap between laws and actual outcomes.
- The gender gap is widest in political empowerment (22.5% closed) and narrowest in health and survival (96% closed).
- Women make up only 42% of the global workforce and 31.7% of senior leadership positions.
Way ahead:
- The report highlights the urgent need for governments, businesses and civil society to collaborate and accelerate progress towards gender equality.
- Bridging gaps in areas like labor force participation, political representation, legal rights and childcare is crucial to unlocking women's economic potential and driving global prosperity.
