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KOHIMA — India has been ranked 129th out of 146 countries in the Global Gender Gap Report 2024 released by the World Economic Forum.
The report assesses gender disparities across economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment indices.
India's rank in 2024 represents a slight decline from its 127th position last year, placing it as the third lowest in Southern Asia, ahead of only Maldives and Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh has achieved a significant milestone by securing a rank of 99, marking its first entry into double-digit rankings within the region.
As per the report, India closed 64.1% of its gender gap in 2024 and showed relative strength in political empowerment, ranking 65th globally.
However, its decline to 129th rank is primarily attributed to reductions in educational attainment and political empowerment, despite marginal improvement in economic participation and opportunity.
The representation of women in India's political sphere remains notably low as it notes that in the newly formed council of ministers; only seven women hold positions, with two in cabinet roles.
This is a decrease compared to the previous tenure, which ended on June 5 and had 10 women ministers. Currently, women hold 6.9% of ministerial positions and occupy 17.2% of parliamentary seats.
However, India ranks among the top 10 globally for the indicator of women in head of state positions, at 40.7%, indicating a disparity in overall political empowerment.
Educational attainment in India also exhibits significant gender gaps, with the country ranking 112th in this parameter, highlighting disparities in literacy rates between men and women.
While there has been some improvement in economic participation and opportunity for women in India, it has not yet reached the peak level of 46% parity seen in 2012.
Addressing gaps in estimated earned income 28.6%, legislative and management roles 14.4%, labour force participation rate 45.9%, and professional and technical workers 49.4% remains crucial, the report stated.
India ranks fourth lowest globally in economic participation parity at 39.8%, with less than 30% gender parity in earned income and less than 50% parity in labour force participation rate.
Despite achieving gender parity in global parliamentary representation at 33% in 2024, South Asia still lags behind, with only Nepal surpassing the global average at 49.9%.
Out of 146 countries assessed, 50.1% reportedly improved their scores across all indices, while 6.1% showed no change, and 43.8% reported negative changes.
While no country has achieved full gender parity, Iceland continues to lead with 93.4% closure of its gender gap, maintaining its top position for over a decade and a half as the only economy to exceed 90% closure.
Among the top performing countries closing up to 80% of their gender gap are Iceland, Finland, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, Nicaragua, Germany, Namibia, and Ireland. European economies occupy three spots globally, including New Zealand in fourth, Nicaragua in sixth, and Namibia in eighth.
The latest report highlights significant progress in bridging global gender gaps, with health and survival at 96%, educational attainment at 94.9%, economic participation at 60.5%, and political empowerment at 22.5%. Political empowerment remains the widest gap observed.
The report projects that achieving full gender parity globally would take 134 years, extending beyond the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target.