Gender Parity Is Still A Distant Dream For India
The good news in the annual Global Gender Gap Index 2026, released on Wednesday by the World Economic Forum, is that India managed to hold on to its rank of 131, out of 145 countries, that it obtained last year. Only 14 countries, such as Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, Mali, and Papua New Guinea, are behind India—hardly anything to crow about. The non-slippage in the rank is…
The World Economic Forum's 2026 Global Gender Gap Index has revealed that India has maintained its 131st ranking among 145 countries, with only 14 nations falling behind. The Index, which measures gender parity on a scale from 0 to 1, assigns India a score of 0.64, unchanged since 2014. The four key areas assessed are Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.
Despite government efforts to uplift women and implement programs for their welfare over the past decade, India's rank and score have remained static. The Index highlights the urgent need for significant progress across all these areas. While India's performance in education is relatively satisfactory, its employment gender parity is deeply concerning, with women comprising only 18% of the paid workforce compared to 78-79% of young men.
This systematic issue stems from societal and political structures that have not created space for women, necessitating visionary policies and consistent ground-level efforts to achieve true gender parity.
Written by urgent.news from Free Press Journal's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
