Context:
India was ranked at 127 out of 146 countries in terms of gender parity — an improvement of eight places from last year, according to the recently published annual Gender Gap Report, 2023.
Relevance:
GS-II: Social Justice (Women Empowerment, Governance and Government Policies, Issues Arising Out of Design & Implementation of Policies), GS-II: International Relations (Important International Institutions and their Reports) GS-I: Indian Society (Issues related to Women, Gender Inequality)
Dimensions of the Article:
- About the Global Gender Gap Report
- About World Economic Forum (WEF)
- Highlights of the Global Gender Gap report 2023
About the Global Gender Gap Report
- The Global Gender Gap Report is published by the World Economic Forum and The Global Gender Gap Index is an index designed to measure gender equality.
- The index is designed to “measure gender-based gaps in access to resources and opportunities in countries rather than the actual levels of the available resources and opportunities in those countries.” Therefore, it is not necessarily true that highly developed countries should have higher scores.
- The methodology used to determine index scores is designed in such a way as to count situations in which men are disadvantaged relative to women as “equal”. (Gender imbalances to the advantage of women do not affect the score.). Over the Index, the highest possible score is 1 (equality) and the lowest possible score is 0 (inequality) – To put it more simply: women could be better off in all areas and still the index would deem that country perfectly equal.
The report’s Gender Gap Index ranks countries according to calculated gender gap between women and men in four key areas to gauge the state of gender equality in a country:
- Economic participation and opportunity,
- Educational attainment,
- Health and survival,
- Political empowerment.
About World Economic Forum (WEF)
- The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.
- It was established in 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It is independent, impartial and not tied to any special interests.
- The Forum strives in all its efforts to demonstrate entrepreneurship in the global public interest while upholding the highest standards of governance.
Major reports published by WEF:
- Energy Transition Index.
- Global Competitiveness Report.
- Global IT Report (WEF along with INSEAD, and Cornell University)
- Global Gender Gap Report.
- Global Risk Report.
- Global Travel and Tourism Report.
Highlights of Global Gender Gap Report 2023:
- India’s Rank: India was ranked 127 out of 146 countries, showing an improvement of eight places from the previous year.
- Education: India achieved parity in enrolment across all levels of education, indicating progress in educational opportunities for both genders.
- Overall Gender Gap: India closed 64.3% of the overall gender gap, demonstrating advancements in gender equality. However, there is still work to be done to achieve full parity.
- Economic Participation and Opportunity: India achieved only 36.7% parity in economic participation and opportunity, indicating a significant gender gap in the workforce and economic sphere.
- Political Empowerment: India registered 25.3% parity in political empowerment, with women representing 15.1% of parliamentarians. This is the highest representation for India since the inaugural report in 2006.
- Regional Comparisons: Among India’s neighboring countries, Pakistan ranked 142, Bangladesh ranked 59, China ranked 107, Nepal ranked 116, Sri Lanka ranked 115, and Bhutan ranked 103.
- Leading Country: Iceland maintained its position as the most gender-equal country for the 14th consecutive year, having closed over 90% of its gender gap.
- Southern Asian Region: The Southern Asian region achieved 63.4% gender parity, which is the second-lowest among the eight regions analyzed.
-Source: Indian express, The Hindu
