Gender parity or gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable society. It is heartening to note here that India’s overall ranking in attaining gender parity has seen an improvement in 2022, thanks to a number of women centric plans, programmes and policies being worked vigorously upon for last several years by the government at the Centre. Good thing is that such programmes promise a lot more for the years to come as their execution work is gradually getting on to the ground. More women are now serving in the positions of power, leadership and laws. More girls are going to school and there’s hardly any region now in the country where people force girls into doing early marriage with stringent laws in place. India, as a nation, has undergone a transformational change as today, women are getting equal opportunities as men in terms of education, profession, choices and pursuits. Government and administration have also started taking into due consideration the concerns related to women safety, hygiene and sanitation.
All these factors have contributed to the country jumping five places to 135 out of the 146 benchmarked this year. Last year India was ranked 140 out of 156 countries in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) latest Gender Gap Report, which benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions such as economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment. On a 0 to 1 scale, where 1 represents the optimal situation or parity, India scored 0.629 on gender parity, which is its seventh-highest score in the past 16 years. In 2022, India’s overall score has improved from 0.625 in 2021 to 0.629. Of all the sub-indices, in terms of political empowerment of women, India was ranked the highest 48th out of 146.
India registers the most significant and positive change to its performance on economic participation and opportunity, however, the global gender gap score of India has oscillated between 0.593 and 0.683 since the first index. The WEF report also suggests that with a female population of approximately 66.2 crore, India’s achievements on these parameters weigh heavily on regional rankings. The report has also appreciated the increase in the share of women legislators, senior officials and managers in India from 14.6% to 17.6%. The share of women as professional and technical workers also grew in India from 29.2% to 32.9%. The gender parity score for estimated earned income has also grown in India. However, the educational attainment and health and survival sub-indexes have reported small developments. The economic participation and opportunity sub-index increased mainly because of the gains for women in professional and technical roles and a decrease in the wage gap.
Comparing with the top ranking countries, India still needs to improve a lot more especially in terms of economic participation and opportunities, educational attainment and health and survival among others to give its women folk a much more respectable position, that they deserve. This is very much achievable given the change that has come in last 7-8 years due to fair promotion of gender-equitable attitudes and practices among India’s children and youth. For the first time since availability of records, India has more females as compared to males. The number of females per 1,000 males increased from 991 in 2015-16 to 1,020 in 2019-21. The sex ratio at birth has also witnessed an increase from 919 in 2015-16 to 929 in 2019-21. Further, India’s Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) has dropped by 10 points. Also, the data shows a decline in the crime against women during the year 2020 (3,71,503) as compared to 2019(4,05,326). Today women are not only working in every wing of the Indian Army, but now they are also getting permanent commissions. The number of women officers has almost tripled in last 6 years.
Since, the Vedic times, women play a crucial role in the upliftment of society, and by paving way for more & more avenues for women, in not just defence but also in other sectors would lead to a ‘New India’ where men & women are making equal contribution in the overall development of the nation.
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