Gender Gap: India Slips 28 Spots, Ranks 140 Among 156 Nations

Income of women in India is only one-fifth of men’s, revealed the Gender Gap index by World Economic Forum.

(Photo: Kamran Akhatar/The Quint)

In the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap index released on Wednesday, 31 March, India has fallen 28 spots and ranks 140th among 156 countries on the list. In 2020, India ranked on the 112th spot of the 153 countries. The coronavirus pandemic and the resulting impact on women is likely to have played a role in the further slip.

“As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be felt, closing the global gender gap has increased by a generation from 99.5 years to 135.6 years,” the report noted.

(Photo: Arnica Kala/TheQuint)

WHERE DOES INDIA STAND

India has closed 62.5 percent of its gender gap till date, the report said, noting that a significant decline took place in the economic opportunity and participation subindex.

According to estimates, income of women in India is only one-fifth of men's, which puts the country among the bottom 10 globally, on this indicator.

(Photo: Arnica Kala/TheQuint)

"Among the drivers of this decline is a decrease in women's labour force participation rate, which fell from 24.8 percent to 22.3 percent. In addition, the share of women in professional and technical roles declined further to 29.2 percent. The share of women in senior and managerial positions also remains low: Only 14.6 percent of these positions are held by women and there are only 8.9 percent firms with female top managers," the report added.

(Photo: Arnica Kala/TheQuint)

STEEP FALL IN POLITICAL REPRESENTATION

The report revealed that most of the decline was seen on the Political Empowerment subindex, where India went back 13.5 percentage points.

(Photo: Arnica Kala/TheQuint)

In addition, share of women in Parliament remained stagnant at 14.4 percent and the share of the last 50 years in which a woman has been head of state is 15.5 percent.

BANGLADESH: BEST PERFORMER IN SOUTH ASIA

All of South Asia was the lowest performer on the index after West Asia and North Africa. Bangladesh was the best faring country within the region.

(Photo: Arnica Kala/TheQuint)

The World Economic Forum’s report also showed that in South Asia, only Bhutan and Nepal had shown progress towards gender parity in 2021.

Over all, Iceland, Finland, Norway, New Zealand, and Sweden are the world’s most gender-equal countries, the report said.

(With PTI inputs)