New Delhi: The World Economic Forum (WEF), which published its latest Global Gender Gap Index ranking on Tuesday, suggested that India had fallen two more places to reach 129 among 146 countries, The Wire reported.
It's shocking that India is trailing behind Bangladesh (99), Nepal (111), Sri Lanka (125), and Bhutan (124), and it only has the fifth position in South Asia.
The report suggested that India registered only less than 30 per cent gender parity in estimated earned income, thus becoming one of those economies with the lowest economic parity. Thus, India is among the likes of Bangladesh, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan and Morocco, where the level of parity in labour force participation rate is below 50 per cent.
Though India has closed 64 per cent of its gender gap in 2024, its fall has been attributed to its slip in the parameters of 'educational attainment' and 'political empowerment'. However, WEF states that India's economic parity score has been on a positive trend for the last four years.
The report suggests that India has been ranked one on gender parity in terms of secondary education enrolment but ranked 105th in tertiary enrolment and 124th in literacy rate. India is 89th in primary education enrolment, the report states.
According to the report, India performed well in the political empowerment subindex's head-of-state indicator. However, it scored relatively low in women's representation at the federal level, which was only 6.9% in ministerial positions and 17.2% in parliament. The country ranked 65th in the political empowerment of women and 10th in the parity in the number of years with female/male heads of state over the last 50 years.
In the Global Gender Gap index ranking, Iceland maintained the top position, which it has been keeping for a decade.