Global Gender Index

Context: India was ranked 127 among 146 countries in gender parity — up eight places from last year’s place — in the Gender Gap Report, 2023 of the World Economic Forum (WEF). About Global Gender Gap Index:

• It annually benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity.
• Four Key Dimensions:
  1. Economic Participation and Opportunity
  2. Educational Attainment
  3. Health and Survival
  4. Political Empowerment

• On each of the four sub-indices as well as on the overall index the GGG index provides scores between 0 and 1, where 1 shows full gender parity and 0 is complete imparity.
• It is the longest-standing index tracking the progress of numerous countries’ efforts towards closing these gaps over time since its inception in 2006.

Findings related to India:

• India had improved by 1.4 percentage points from then, marking a partial recovery towards its 2020 parity level.
• India was ranked 135 in 2022. India had closed 64.3% of the overall gender gap.

• Parity in School Enrolment: 
  • India had attained parity in enrolment across all levels of education.
• Economic Parity:
  • India had reached only 36.7% parity in economic participation and opportunity.
  • There had been an uptick in parity in wages and income.
  • The share of women in senior positions and technical roles had dropped slightly since the last edition.

• Parity on Political Empowerment:
  • India has registered 25.3% parity, with women making up 15.1% of MPs.
  • India is one of the countries with 44.4% that has achieved women’s representation of over 40% in local governance.

• Gender Parity at Birth: 
  • India has achieved gender parity at birth at 92.7%. 
  • The 1.9 percentage point improvement in sex ratio at birth had driven up parity after more than a decade.

Global rankings

• No country has yet achieved full gender parity.
• Top nine countries:
  • For the 14th year, Iceland is the most gender-equal country by having closed 91.2% of its gap.
  • Only nine countries have closed at least 80% of their gap: Iceland, Norway, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, Germany, Nicaragua, Namibia and Lithuania.

Image Source: The Hindu

Additional Information  About World Economic Forum: Also known as:  International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. Established in: 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation Founder: Klaus Schwab Headquarter: Geneva, Switzerland. It is independent, impartial and not tied to any special interests. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Other WEF Reports:  The Future of Jobs Report Global Risks Report Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report Global Competitiveness Report

 News Source: The Hindu