SYLLABUS

GS-1: Role of women and women’s organization.

GS-2: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes. 

Context: India retained the 131st position among 145 economies in the Global Gender Gap Index 2026, with 64.5% of its gender gap closed. Its score improved marginally from 2025, but its global rank remained unchanged. 

Understanding the Global Gender Gap Index

• About the Index: Introduced by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2006, the Index benchmarks gender parity across four dimensions: 

• Economic Participation and Opportunity, 
• Educational Attainment, 
• Health and Survival, and 
• Political Empowerment. 

• 20th Edition: The 2026 edition covers 145 economies and includes a constant sample of 97 economies assessed in every edition since 2006, enabling a two-decade assessment of progress. 

• Measurement: Each indicator is expressed on a 0–1 parity scale, where 1 represents complete parity. The score can also be expressed as the percentage of the gender gap closed. The Index measures relative parity between women and men, rather than absolute levels of development or well-being. 

Key Findings of the Report

A. Global Performance

• Overall Progress: The global gender gap is 69.2% closed in 2026. Among the 143 economies covered in both 2025 and 2026, the gap narrowed by 0.4 percentage points. The constant sample of 97 economies reached 69.4%, up 5.2 percentage points from 64.2% in 2006. 

• Time to Parity: No economy has achieved full gender parity; at the current global rate of progress, complete parity is estimated to remain 120 years away. 

• Dimension-wise Gaps: Educational Attainment (96.9%) and Health and Survival (96.2%) are closest to parity, while larger gaps persist in Economic Participation and Opportunity (61.7%) and Political Empowerment (22.1%). Year-on-year, education recorded the largest improvement, while political empowerment declined. 

• Top Performers: Iceland (93%) retained the top position for the 17th consecutive year, followed by Finland (87.2%) and Norway (85.7%). Namibia (84.5%) is the highest-ranked Sub-Saharan African economy, while Australia (81.9%) entered the top 10 for the first time. 

• Leadership and Emerging Economy: LinkedIn data cited by the WEF shows women's workforce representation rising to 41.8% in 2026, compared with 29.6% in senior leadership. Their representation falls from 46% at entry level to 23% at the C-suite, while women remain underrepresented across the AI value chain. 

B. India's Performance

• Overall: India scored 64.5% and ranked 131st, marking a 4.3-percentage-point improvement since 2006, driven primarily by Educational Attainment. India ranks sixth among the seven South Asian economies; only 14 economies rank below it globally. 

• Economic Participation and Opportunity – 41.2%: India's score improved 0.5 percentage points from 2025 but remains 3.5 points below its 2013 peak of 44.6%. Its overall 20-year improvement in this subindex is only 1.5 points. Professional and technical worker parity rose from 26.6% in 2006 to 49.9% in 2026, while labour-force participation parity is 44.1% and parity among legislators, senior officials and managers is 13.1%. 

• Educational Attainment – 96.6%: India retains full parity in secondary and tertiary enrolment and near-parity in primary enrolment. However, adult literacy parity is 82.5%, and the overall education score declined 0.5 percentage points from the previous edition. 

• Health and Survival – 95.6%: India improved its score from the previous edition. However, the sex ratio at birth remains nearly one percentage point below its 2006 parity level. 

• Political Empowerment – 24.5%: India's highest-ranked subindex places it 67th globally, but its overall improvement since 2006 is only 1.8 percentage points. Parliamentary parity is 16.1%, while ministerial parity is 5.9%. The head-of-state indicator has fallen from 72.3% in 2021 to 40.7% in 2026. 

Initiatives Taken to Bridge Gender Gap in India

• Gender-responsive Budgeting: The Gender Budget Statement, introduced in 2005–06, integrates gender considerations into public expenditure. In FY 2026–27, ₹5.01 lakh crore, or 9.37% of the Union Budget, was reported under it. 

• Education: Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas support girls' education, retention and empowerment. 

• Economic Empowerment: Self-Help Groups under DAY-NRLM, MUDRA and skill-development interventions support women's livelihoods, financial access, entrepreneurship and employment. 

• Safety and Empowerment: Mission Shakti, through Sambal and Samarthya, brings together interventions such as One Stop Centres, Women Helplines, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, PMMVY, Palna creches and Shakti Sadans. 

• Political Representation: The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023 provides for one-third reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies, including one-third of SC/ST-reserved seats. Its implementation is linked to the census and delimitation process. 

Persistent Challenges/Limitations

• Education–Employment Disconnect: Near-parity in educational attainment has not translated into comparable economic participation; India's Economic Participation and Opportunity score remains only 41.2%. 

• Leadership Gap: Professional and technical representation has improved substantially, but parity among legislators, senior officials and managers remains at 13.1%, indicating limited progression into senior positions. 

• Care and Workplace Barriers: Unpaid care responsibilities, inadequate childcare, mobility constraints and workplace-safety concerns can restrict women's entry, retention and progression in paid employment. 

• Political Representation: Political Empowerment remains low at 24.5%, with parliamentary and ministerial parity at only 16.1% and 5.9%, respectively. 

• Emerging Technology Gap: Globally, women's representation declines sharply along the leadership pipeline, while they remain underrepresented in AI-related roles, creating a risk that existing gender disparities will persist in emerging sectors. 

• Index Limitations: The Index measures relative gender parity, not absolute welfare or development. Data availability, methodological coverage and time lags also require rankings to be interpreted within their national and regional contexts. 

Way Forward

• Bridge Education and Employment: Convert gains in girls' education into greater female workforce participation, entrepreneurship and career progression. 

• Reduce Care and Mobility Barriers: Expand affordable childcare, safe transport, workplace infrastructure and flexible work arrangements to support sustained employment. 

• Strengthen Leadership Pipelines: Improve women's progression into senior positions across political, administrative and economic institutions through leadership opportunities and institutional support. 

• Prepare for Future Jobs: Increase women's participation in STEM, digital technologies and AI to prevent emerging sectors from reproducing existing occupational inequalities. 

• Focus on Outcomes: Strengthen gender-disaggregated data, gender budgeting and outcome-based monitoring of employment, income, safety and decision-making, rather than relying only on enrolment or expenditure.