India was on Wednesday ranked low at 135th place in terms of gender parity, despite an improvement ꦉof five pla൲ces since last year on better performance in areas of economic participation and opportunity.
Iceland retained its place as the world's most genderও-equal country, followed by Finland, Norway, New Zealand and Sweden, as per the annual Gender Ga😼p Report 2022 of the World Economic Forum (WEF) released in Geneva.
Only 11 countries are ranked below India on the index of 146 nati💝ons, with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Congꦕo, Iran and Chad being the worst-five.
The WEF warned that the co⭕st of living crisis is expected to hit women hardest globally with a widening gender gap in the labour force and it will take another 132 years (compared to 136 in 2021) to close the gender gap.
The report further said that Covid-19 has set gender parit🅰y bacꦇk by a generation and a weak recovery was making it worse globally.
On India, the WEF said its gender gap score recorded its seventh-highest level in the la🧜st 16 years, but it continues to𒐪 rank among the worst performers on various parameters.
"With a female population of approximately 662 million, India's leꦗvel of attainment weighs heavily on regional rankings," it said.
Recovering ground since 2021, India registered the most significant and positive cha✅nge to its performance on Economic Participation and Opportunity. But, labour-force participation shrunk for both men and women since 2021.
The share of women legislators, senior officials and managers increased from 14𝓡.6 per cent to 17.6 per cent, and the share of women as professional and technical workers grew from 29.2 per cent to 32.9 per cent.
The gender parity score for estimated earned income improved; while values for both ꦫmen and women diminished, they declined more for men.
However, in the area of political empowerment, the subind🃏ex where India ranks relatively higher at 48th place, showed a declining score due to the diminishing share of years women have served as head of state for the past 50 years.
On the health and survival subindex, India ranked the lowest at 146th place and figured among the five countries with gender 𒊎gaps larger than 5 per cent -- the other four being Qatar, Pakistan, Azerbaijan and China.
However, Inꦉdia was ranked the top globally in terms of gender parity for primary education enrolment and tertiary education enr✃olment and at the eighth place for the position of head of state.
Within South Asia, India was𒊎 ranked the sixth best on overall score after Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bhutan. Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan scored worse than India.
South Asiaಞ (62.3 per cent) has the largest gender gap of all regions, with low scores across all measu💖red gender gaps and little progress made in most countries since 2021.
At its current pace, it will take 197 years to close the gender gap in the region. The economic gender gap has closed by 1.8 per cent with 🌜increases in the share of women in professional and technical roles in countries including Bangladesh and India as well as Nepal.
The WEF said that of the 146 economies surveyed, just one in five has maᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚnaged to close the gender gap by 🏅at least 1 per cent in the past year.
"The cost of living crisis is impacting women disproportionately after the shock of labour market losses during theꦏ pandemic and the continued inadequacy of care infrastructure," WEF Managing Director Saadia Zahidi said.
"In face of a weak recovery, government and bus💝iness must make two sets of efforts: targeted policies to support women's return to the workforce and women's talent development in the industries of the future. Otherwise, we risk eroding the gains of the last decades permanently and losing out on t♏he future economic returns of diversity," she added.
At the current rates of progress, it will take 155 ye💙ars to close the political empowerment gender gap -- 11 more than predicted in 2021 -- and 151 years for the economic participation and opportunity ꧒gender gap.
Although 29 countries have reached full parity, it wi💧ll still take 22 years to🌊 close the educational attainment gender gap.
And while more than 140 countries have closed at least 95 per cent of their health gaps, overall backsliding in health and survival means there may be🍒 a reversal.
(With PTI inputs)
