India Rises To 127 In The WEF Gender Index

• Posted on June 22, 2023
• Daily Current Affairs

India Rises To 127 In The WEF Gender Index

Context : 

In the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Gender Gap Report, 2023, India improved eight places from its ranking last year to 127th out of 146 nations in terms of gender parity.

World Economic Forum

• Background and Aims:

1. 1. 1. The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a global non-governmental organisation with headquarters in Cologny, Geneva, Switzerland.
      2. German engineer Klaus Schwab established it in 1971.
      3. The organization’s goal is to make the world a better place by working with influential business, political, academic, and other figures to affect regional, industrial, and global agendas.

• Membership and Funding: 

1. 1. 1. Companies that are members of the WEF typically have global operations with annual revenues surpassing $5 billion.
      2. It also receives government funding.
      3. There are about 1,000 businesses that are members of the organisation.

• Annual Meetings:

1. 1. 1. The WEF is most known for its annual meeting, which is held in Davos, Switzerland.
      2. Around 3,000 people attend the gathering, including financiers, business executives, public officials, economists, famous people, and journalists.
      3. Global topics are explored over the event’s 500 sessions, which can last up to five days.

• Other Meetings: 

1. 1. 1. In addition to Davos, the WEF holds additional meetings and regional conferences in the United Arab Emirates, India, China, Latin America, Africa, and East Asia.
      2. Additional yearly meetings are also held there as well as in China and the United Arab Emirates.

• Initiatives: 

1. 1. The WEF publishes a number of reports on various subjects.
   2. To solve global concerns, it involves its members in sector-specific activities.
   3. The Global Competitiveness Report (1979), Global Information Technology Report (2001), Global Gender Gap Report, Global Risks Report, Global Travel and Tourism Report, Financial Development Report (2008), and Global Enabling Trade Report (2008) are among the annual economic reports produced by the Competitiveness Team. These studies assess a nation’s readiness for IT, gender inequality, hazards, and trade facilitation initiatives.

Gender Gap Report, 2023 

• The 17th edition of the Global Gender Gap Index assesses gender parity across 146 countries, allowing for meaningful cross-country analysis.
• A subset of 102 countries has been consistently included in every edition of the index since 2006, providing a substantial and consistent sample for time-series analysis.
• The Global Gender Gap Index utilizes a scale of 0 to 100 to measure gender equality, with scores representing the progress made towards parity (closing the gender gap).
• Comparing countries’ scores enables the identification of effective policies for closing gender gaps.
• The index presents the results for the year 2023, providing an up-to-date assessment of gender equality.
• Trend analysis helps track the trajectory of progress towards gender parity over time.
• The index incorporates new metrics partnerships and contextual data to gain deeper insights into gender equality.

Key Findings 

• Overall Gender Gap: India had reduced the gender gap by 64.3%, a sign of progress towards achieving gender parity. But there is still a sizable gap to be filled.
• Economic Opportunity and Participation: In terms of economic opportunity and participation, India only attained 36.7% parity. As a result, there is a considerable gap between men and women in terms of their ability to access economic opportunities and their involvement in the labour force.
• Political Empowerment: With women making up 15.1% of Parliamentarians, India achieved political empowerment parity of 25.3%. Despite some advances, gender equality in political representation is still far from being achieved.
• Women’s Representation in Local Governance: India, along with nations like Bolivia and France, attained a level of female representation in local governance of more than 40%. This shows that grassroots efforts to empower women are making progress.
•  sex ratio at Birth: In India, the birth sex ratio saw an improvement of 1.9 percentage points. After more than ten years, this advancement helped gender parity rise. India’s gender parity at birth is 92.7%, which is a little lower than the top-performing nations when compared to them.
• Southern Asian Region: The overall gender parity attained in the Southern Asian region—which includes India—was 63.4%. The fact that this is the second-lowest score among the eight regions evaluated in the report indicates that there is still a lot of work to be done to close gender gaps in the area.