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The Gender Gap Index for 2022, released by the World Economic Forum, ranks India at 135 out of 146 countries.
Key Takeaways.
- India is ranked 135th out of 146 nations in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index for 2022.
- In 2021, India ranked 140th out of 156 nations.
The Global Gender Gap Index.
- The World Economic Forum first released the Global Gender Gap Report in 2006. It is an index created to measure gender equality.
- The Global Gender Gap Index measures gender parity in four important areas: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
- The Global Gender Gap Index assigns scores between 0 and 1 to each of the four subindices as well as the overall index, where 1 indicates full gender parity and 0 indicates total imparity.
Sub-indices of the Global Gender Gap Index.
- Political Empowerment
- This covers data like the proportion of women in parliament and ministerial positions, among others.
- India is ranked highest in this sub-index out of all the sub-indices (48th out of 146).
- Economic Participation and Opportunity
- This includes indicators like the proportion of women in the labour force, wage parity for a similar job, earned income, etc.
- Here India ranks a lowly 143 out of 146 countries.
- Only Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan are behind India on this criteria, and India’s score is significantly lower than the average for the world.
- Educational Attainment
- This sub-index takes into account indicators including the rate of literacy and enrolment in primary, secondary, and tertiary education.
- Here India ranks 107th out of 146.
- Health and Survival
- This includes two metrics: the sex ratio at birth (in %) and healthy life expectancy (in years)
- India is placed 146th out of all the nations in this criteria.
Women empowerment
Promoting women’s self-worth, their capacity to make their own decisions, and their right to have an impact on societal change for both themselves and others are referred to as women’s empowerment.
Challenges of women empowerment
- Discrimination in job opportunities
- Women often reserved some specific jobs such as front office, nursing etc.. which are comparatively low paid.
- Health and Nutrition
- Maternal mortality ratio of 130, Son Meta Preference, etc.. are alienating women from the job market.
- Patriarchy
- Patriarchal society leading to poor self-worth of women
- Education
- Poor literacy levels with 59% as compared to 80% in males.
Measures for women empowerment
- Constitutional measures
- Right to equality under Article 14
- Equal pay for equal work article under Article 39
- Judicial verdicts
- The Vishaka Guidelines were a set of guidelines for use in sexual harassment cases in India.
- Government Schemes
- Beti Bachao Beti Padhao for health and educational improvements of the girl child.
- Institutional measures
- National Commission for Women to protect the rights and interests of women.
- Reservation
- In order to political participation of women, 73 and 74 constitutional amendments Act reserves 33% of total available seats in Panchayat Raj Institutions.
Way Forward
- Political participation
- One-third of all Lok Sabha seats would be set aside for women under the Constitution (One Hundred and Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2008, which has not yet been passed.
- Bridge wage gap
- The unequal payment of wages should be abolished.
- Promotion of education
- Promotion of women’s education especially higher education
- Reservation of jobs in the private sector
- Provide tax incentives to business firms which provide reservation of jobs to women.
- Awareness generation
- Awareness generation of women’s rights and their role in society.
Pic Courtesy: The Hindu
Content Source: Indian Express