India falls 28 places in the Global Gender Gap Index; places 140th out of 156 countries

The gender gap in India widened a lot further than it already was when it fell 28 places in the Global Gender Gap Index to place 140^th out of 156 countries in 2021. It was placed at 112 out of 153 in 2020 so this huge drop in just one year shows how badly India has fared in gender equity.

According to the report, South Asia is the worst performing region globally with only 62.3 percent of its gender gap closed. Here, Bangladesh is far above the rest of the countries in the region placing 65^th amongst 156 countries followed by Nepal at 106^th and Sri Lanka at 116^th  spot.

India has widened its gender gap from 66.8 percent in 2020 to 62.5 percent this year. Further, India declined three percentage points in Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex. Also, only 29.2 percent of technical roles are held by women.

The global gender gap is measured on four sub indexes: Economic Participation and Opportunities, Educational Attainment, Political Empowerment and Health and Survival. The Global Gender Gap Index began in 2006 and in the 14^th edition 156 countries were benchmarked.

Covid 19, the report pointed out has impacted women more severely than men, partially re-opening gender gaps that had already been closed. The report mentions that on its current trajectory, it will take 135.6 years to close the gender gap worldwide.

Iceland held its first position as the most gender equal country in the world for the 12^th year. Finland, Norway, New Zealand and Sweden were in the 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th position out of the 156 countries. Two African countries Namibia and Rwanda held the 6^th and 7^th position as the most gender equal countries, while Lithuania, Ireland and Switzerland were placed 8^th, 9^th and 10^th respectively.  

In South Asian region, the most pressing area is the gender gap in Economic Participation and Opportunity sub index where only 33.8 percent of the gap has been closed, which the report pointed out was the lowest amongst all regional groups. Here Afghanistan has the lowest rank with only 18 percent of the gender gap closed while India has 31.6 percent of the gender gap closed and Pakistan has 32.6 percent score. The regional champion in this category is Nepal with 63 percent of the gender gap closed.

Low participation of women in the labour force hinders economic opportunities for women throughout South Asia. Only 22.3 percent women in India, 22.6 percent in Pakistan and 38.4 percent in Bangladesh are active in the labour market. By contract, there is 85 percent participation of women in the labour force in Nepal.

The report mentions that, “Gender gaps on the Political Empowerment subindex are also stark across the region and have further widened this year. Only 28.1% of this gender gap has been bridged to date, down from 38.7% reported in the last edition. The decline in the share of women among ministers in some of the most populous countries explains most of the regional decline.”

Pointing to India, the report say, “In India the share of women ministers decreased from 23.1% to 9.1%, and in Pakistan from 12% to 10.7%. Women remain acutely underrepresented in the political sphere in this region. In no country is the share of women in parliament above 33% in South Asia. In the three most populous countries, the share lies between 14 and 20%, and in some countries, it is as low as 5.4% (Sri Lanka) and 4.6% (Maldives).”

The situation is much better in the Educational Attainment subindex. Here 93.3 percent of the gender gap has been closed in South Asia. But differences in the various countries are marked. Female literacy is as low as 53.7 percent in Afghanistan, 65.8 percent in India, 59.7 percent in Nepal, 57 percent in Bhutan and 46.5 percent in Pakistan with little hope of this gap closing in the near future.

The hope of closing educational gender gaps lies with the younger generation, but not everywhere, the report stated.

The 2021 report on Global Gender Gap points out that the preference of sons and sex selective practices is hampering the Health and Survival subindex in the region. It says, “Another aspect that limits faster progress in gender parity in South Asia is Health and Survival: only 94.2% of the gap on this subindex has been closed to date. Notably, the low performance of large countries such as India (93.7%) and Pakistan (94.4%) can be traced to the persistence of son preference and sex selective practices, preventing a faster evolution toward parity on this dimension.”

The Global Gender Gap Index rankings by region, 2021

South Asia