India has slipped 28 places to rank 140th among 156 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021, becoming the third-worst performer in South Asia.

For the 12th time, Iceland is the most gender-equal country in the world. The top 10 most gender-equal countries include Finland, Norway, New Zealand, Rwanda, Sweden, Ireland and Switzerland.

Global Gender Gap Index

• The report is annually published by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
• It benchmarks countries on their progress towards gender parity in four dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival and Political Empowerment.
• The report aims to serve “as a compass to track progress on relative gaps between women and men on health, education, economy and politics”.

Highlights of the 2021 report

Indian prospects

According to the report, India has closed 62.5% of its gender gap to date.

• Economic participation: India’s gender gap on this dimension widened by 3% this year, leading to a 32.6% gap closed to date.
• Political empowerment: India regressed 13.5 percentage points, with a significant decline in the number of women ministers.
• Income: Further, 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.
• Health: Discrimination against women is also reflected in the health and survival subindex statistics. With 93.7% of this gap closed to date, India ranks among the bottom five countries in this subindex.
• 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, the report said.

India’s neighbourhood

• In South Asia, only Pakistan and Afghanistan ranked below India.
• Among India’s neighbours, 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.
• Within the region, a wide gulf separates the best-performing country, Bangladesh, which has closed 71.9% of its gender gap so far, from Afghanistan, which has only closed 44.4% of its gap.
• Because of its large population, India’s performance has a substantial impact on the region’s overall performance.

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