Closing the gender gap

More workforce participation can right the imbalance

India’s five-rank improvement on the World Economic Forum’s latest Global Gender Gap Index detracts from the fact that its performance on gender equality remains among the worst in the world. At rank 135 out of 146 countries against 140 out of 156 countries in 2021, it ranks above only 11 countries which included states such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Congo, Iran, and Chad. India does not fare much better when the sample is narrowed to 19 East Asian states, few of which enjoy top 50 rankings in the first place. Here, the country weighs in at rank 17, ahead only of Pakistan and Afghanistan. It’s not just the traditional Asian Tigers — Singapore (49), Thailand (79), Indonesia (92), Malaysia (98), and South Korea (99) — and China (102) that outperform India. Countries that would qualify as medium-size states in India fare way better too — Laos (53), Bangladesh (71), and Vietnam (83) appear to have more equal societies. And this, when India’s overall score has improved from 0.625 in 2021 (with zero being the worst and 1 the best) to 0.629, its seventh-highest score since the index was first compiled in 2006.

A disaggregated examination of India’s score would immediately make the problems clear. The country performs decently on political empowerment, which measures the percentage of women in Parliament or holding ministerial positions. India has always enjoyed a strong showing here even in past surveys, though it may be instructive that Bangladesh ranks ninth on this index with 0.546 compared to India’s 0.267, itself a deterioration from 0.276 in 2021. The imminent election of a woman head of state, the second this century, may well improve this metric. It is in the other three sub-indices that India’s gender crisis becomes glaring and all three have a strong correlation. On the index labelled educational attainments, which measures literacy and enrolment rates at all levels, India ranks 107 out of 146. On the health and survival index, which measures sex ratio at birth and life expectancy, India stands last.

Both these indices are a reflection of persistent traditional patriarchal attitudes towards women, including their chances of being born. As the experience of other countries, including those in East Asia, would attest, both indices would improve significantly if the needle on the third sub-index could be moved farther and faster. This concerns economic participation and opportunity with its concomitant spin-offs for women’s empowerment, which would give them a greater say in their health and educational welfare. Here, India ranks 143 out of 146 countries, though this is, inexplicably, an improvement from its 2021 ranking. At 20.6 per cent, the female labour force participation rate represents a fall from its pre-Covid level of 22.8 per cent, which is hardly a healthy trend. Though it is true that the pandemic-induced job and income losses impacted women around the world, they appear to have had a disproportionate impact in India. During the post-pandemic recovery, it’s the men who have returned to the workforce where jobs are still scarce — even in industries such as retail and hospitality where women’s participation tends to be higher. It is unclear why this is the case but it is not a good outcome for a country that seeks a place at the global high table and intends to grow at a faster pace.