Global Gender Gap Report 2021

Global Gender Gap Report 2021:

India has fallen 28 places in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2021.

Global Gender Gap Report:

• It was first published in 2006 by the WEF.
• It benchmarks 156 countries on their progress towards gender parity in four dimensions:
  • Economic Participation and Opportunity,
  • Educational Attainment,
  • Health and Survival and
  • Political Empowerment.
• Over the Index, the highest possible score is 1 (equality) and the lowest possible score is 0 (inequality).

India’s Position:

• India is now one of the worst performers in South Asia, it is now ranked 140 among 156 countries.
• In South Asia, Bangladesh ranked 65, Nepal 106, Pakistan 153, Afghanistan 156, Bhutan 130 and Sri Lanka 116.
• India had ranked 112th among 153 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index 2020.

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, from 23.1% in 2019 to 9.1% in 2021.

Education Attainment:

• In the index of education attainment, India has been ranked at 114.

Economic Participation:

• The report notes that the economic participation gender gap actually widened in India by 3% this year.
• The share of women in professional and technical roles declined further to 29.2%.
• The share of women in senior and managerial positions also is at 14.6% and only 8.9% firms in the country have top female managers.
• 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%.

Health and Survival index:

• On this India has fared the worst, ranking at 155.
• The only country to have fared worse is China.