Global gender Gap Report

In News: India has fallen 28 spots to rank 140th among 156 countries on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap index. In 2020, India had ranked 112th among 153 countries on the index.

About Global Gender Gap Report 

• It was first published in 2006 by World Economic Forum
• The Global gender gap index is a part of this which measures gender equality across four pillars– they are economic opportunity, political empowerment, educational attainment and health and survival.
• The highest possible score is 1 (equality) and the lowest possible score is 0 (inequality).

Highlights of the 2021 report

India’s Scenario

• Economic participation: India’s gender gap on this dimension widened by 3% this year, leading to a 32.6% gap .The share of women in professional and technical roles declined further to 29.2%.
• Income: The estimated earned income of women in India is only one-fifth of men’s, which puts the country among the bottom 10 globally on this indicator.In Pakistan and Afghanistan, the income of an average woman is below 16% of that of an average man, while in India it is 20.7%.
• Political empowerment: India has declined on the political empowerment index as well by 13.5 percentage points, and a decline in the number of women ministers. However, it has still performed relatively well compared to other countries, ranking at 51 in women’s participation in politics.
• Violence: Wide gaps in sex ratio at birth are due to the high incidence of gender-based sex-selective practices. In addition, more than one in four women has faced intimate violence in her lifetime.
• Health and Survival index: With 93.7% of this gap closed to date, India ranks among the bottom five countries in this subindex, Indicates discrimination against women. 
• Education Attainment:In the index of education attainment, India has been ranked at 114.

Our Neighbours Scenario

• Only Pakistan and Afghanistan ranked below India.
• Bangladesh ranked 65, Nepal 106, Pakistan 153, Afghanistan 156, Bhutan 130 and Sri Lanka 116.
• Among regions, South Asia is the second-lowest performer on the index, with 62.3% of its overall gender gap closed.
• Because of its large population, India’s performance has a substantial impact on the region’s overall performance.

Global Scenario

• • Region Wise Rank:South Asia incidentally is one of the worst performing regions, followed only by the Middle East and northern Africa.

• Political Empowerment: Women represent only 26.1% of some 35,500 parliament seats and just 22.6% of over 3,400 ministers worldwide. In 81 countries, there has never been a woman head of state, as of 15th January, 2021.

Timeframe to Close the Gap:It will take South Asia 195.4 years to close the gender gap, while Western Europe will take 52.1 years.