Context: In the 2024 edition of the Global Gender Gap Index, India ranks 129th out of 146 countries surveyed, positioning it 18th from the bottom.
Key findings of Global Gender Gap Index’24:
- The 2024 Index shows that while no country has achieved full gender parity, 97% of the economies included in this edition have closed more than 60% of their gap, compared to 85% in 2006.
- It will take 134 years, until 2158, to achieve full gender equality, which is five generations past the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target.
- Iceland (93.5%) is again ranked 1st and has been leading the index for a decade and a half. It also continues to be the only economy to have closed over 90% of its gender gap.
- Southern Asia ranks seventh among eight global regions, with a gender parity score of 63.7 per cent, an improvement of 3.9 percentage points since 2006.
- However, six out of the seven economies in this region, including India, are ranked below the top 100. Only Bangladesh, for the first time in the region, has achieved a double-digit rank of 99.
- India’s performance in Southern Asia is particularly troubling. In 2024, India closed 64.1% of its gender gap, ranking third lowest in the region, just ahead of the Maldives and Pakistan. India’s overall rank is 129th, marginally lower than last year (127).
- The decline is mainly attributed to slight decreases in ‘Educational Attainment’ and ‘Political Empowerment’ as women’s representation in India’s political sphere remains low, with only seven women in the newly formed council of ministers, and just two holding cabinet positions. However, despite the overall decline, there was a minor improvement in ‘Economic Participation and Opportunity.’
About Global Gender Gap Index:
- It is an annual report highlights the current state and evolution of gender parity.
- It was first introduced by the World Economic Forum in 2006.
- It is the longest-standing index tracking the progress of numerous countries’ efforts towards closing these gaps.
- It presents a picture of the current state and evolution of gender parity across four indices: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
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