Global Gender Gap Index

It is an annual report which is released by World Economic Forum since 2006. Which Highlights the current state & Evolution of gender parity. The Global Gender Gap Index annually benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions (Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment). It is the longest-standing index tracking the progress of numerous countries' efforts toward closing these gaps over time since its inception in 2006 is going on.

Key Findings of the report-Status of South Asia & India:-

1. The report highlights that India has closed 64.3% of the overall gender gap, however, India has only reached 36.7% parity in economic participation and opportunity.

2. India has achieved parity in enrolment across all levels of education.

3. In India, while there has been an improvement in parity in wages and income, the representation of women in senior positions and technical roles has slightly decreased in the last edition.

4. India has a 25.3% parity in political empowerment, with women comprising 15.1% of MPs.

5. Among 117 countries with available data since, 2017 18 countries, including Bolivia (50.4%), India (44.4%), and France (42.3%) have achieved women's representation of over 40% in local governance.

6. In India, a 1.9% point improvement in the sex ratio at birth has contributed to increased parity after more than a decade.

7. Compared to top-scoring countries with 94.4% gender parity at birth, India's indicator stands at 92.7%

8. Overall, the southern Asian region has achieved almost 63.4% gender parity, which is the second-lowest among the 8 regions.

Economic issues of women's participation:-

• Unpaid care work- According to (OECD) - Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. As stated by Mckinsey around 75% of the world's most unpaid and unvalued domestic household chores are carried out by women which is not recognized.

• Glass ceiling- They form the invisible barriers between women and more opportunities for them in the form of the social norm or stereotypical behaviors.

• Informalization- Institute of Human Development>90% which lacks social security.

• Low FLFPR- Female Labour Force Participation Rate (FLFPR) is quite low in the present context.

Q) Political issues of women participation: Why Political empowerment is not happening?

17th Lok Sabha has only 14% of female members, whereas the share is just 9% for legislative assemblies of all the states where the issue is yet unaddressed. And this data is the highest to date.

Factors that hinder women's political participation are as follows:-

1. Patriarchial attitude regarding the roles of women in society

2. Barriers like minimum education qualification in some states

3. Lack of Finance

4. Criminalization of Politics

5. Lack of their own identity- often contested as BETI (daughter), BIWI (wife), BAHU (daughter-in-law).

6. Domestic responsibility.

The Women's Reservation bill in the Indian legislature is yet pending to be passed in the parliament and is searching for new ways to get postponed.

Yet, in many Scandinavian countries, such as Finland Sweden and Norway Women's political participation rate is high as compared to many other nations where women empowerment is taking place.

You Cannot Empower Without Being in Power

So, to tackle women's issues and their problems electing a women leader can ought to better outcomes in this field and yield good results and in turn prosperity for our country.