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Every year since 2006, a report is released that tracks gender gap in the world on four parameters- economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. The global gender gap as of 2024 is 68.5%, only 0.1 percentage point less than what it was in 2023. But the report shows some improvement in terms of gender equality during the previous twenty years.
The report says, “The 2024 Global Gender Gap Index shows that while no country has achieved full gender parity, 97% of the economies included in this edition have closed more than 60% of their gap, compared to 85% in 2006”.
India has dropped down two places on the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap index to 129th place, while Iceland still remains at the top position in the rankings published. Within South Asia, India ranked fifth after Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan, while Pakistan was ranked last. And globally, Sudan was ranked last on the index of 146 countries.
About the India’s low ranking, the report says, “In the political empowerment subindex, while India scores within the top 10 on the head-of-state indicator (40.7%), the country’s scores for women’s representation at the federal level, in ministerial positions (6.9%) and in Parliament (17.2%), remain relatively low.”
“With a population of over 1.4 billion, India (129th) has closed 64.1% of its gender gap in 2024. This result places the Southern Asian economy -2 ranks lower than the previous edition, with a marginally lower score (0.17 percentage points). This slight regression is mainly the result of small declines in Educational Attainment and Political Empowerment while Economic Participation and Opportunity slightly improves”, the report further adds.
The WEF said that the world has closed 68.5 per cent of the gender gap, but at the current pace it will take another 134 years to achieve full gender equality.