India has slipped two places to 129th on the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap index, where Iceland retained the top position, according to the rankings published on Wednesday. Within South Asia, India ranked fifth, behind Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan, while Pakistan ranked last.
Globally, Sudan ranked last on the index of 146 countries, while Pakistan slipped three places to 145th.
India figured among the economies with the lowest levels of economic parity, alongside Bangladesh, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan and Morocco. All of them registered less than 30% gender parity in estimated earned income.
However, India showed the best gender parity in terms of enrolment in secondary education, while it scored well on political empowerment of women at 65th rank globally.
With regard to parity in the number of years with female/male heads of state for the last 50 years, India was ranked 10th.
With a population of over 140 crore, India has closed 64.1% of its gender gap in 2024. The decline of two places from 127th last year mainly happened due to small declines in 'Educational Attainment' and 'Political Empowerment' parameters, while 'Economic Participation' and 'Opportunity' scores slightly improved.
The WEF said India's economic parity score has trended upwards for the past four years.
In the Political Empowerment subindex, India scored within the top 10 on the head-of-state indicator, but its scores for women's representation at the federal level, in ministerial positions (6.9%) and in Parliament (17.2%), remain relatively low, it added.
The WEF said the world has closed 68.5% of the gender gap, but at the current pace, it will take another 134 years— equivalent to five generations— to achieve full gender parity. Since last year, the gender gap has closed by 0.1% points.
"Despite some bright spots, the slow and incremental gains highlighted in this year's Global Gender Gap Report underscore the urgent need for a renewed global commitment to achieving gender parity, particularly in economic and political spheres," WEF Managing Director Saadia Zahidi said.
"We cannot wait until 2158 for parity. The time for decisive action is now," she added.
Iceland was followed by Finland, Norway, New Zealand and Sweden in the top five. The UK was ranked 14th, while the US was at 43rd place.
(Text inputs from PTI)
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