Gender gap index: India jumps 21 spots but still a lowly 87th

GENEVA/NEW DELHI: India is ranked at a low 87th place globally in terms of gender equality despite a jump of 21 places from last year largely due to progress on the education front. Iceland has emerged at the top of the list.

India was previously ranked 108th on the annual Global Gender Gap index compiled by Geneva-based World Economic Forum. India has closed its gender gap by 2 % in a year and its gap now stands at 68% across the four pillars that WEF measures -- economy, education, health and political representation.

The major improvement has been in education where “India has managed to close its gap entirely in primary and sec adding that in the economic sphere, “much work remains to be done”. India ranks 136 in this pillar out of 144 countries.

On educational attainment, India was ranked at 113th place; in terms of health and survival, it was a placed at a lowly 142, while on political empowerment it was among the top 10 countries, getting the 9th spot.

According to the WEF’S Global Gender Gap Report 2016, the prospects of global workplace gender parity slipped further, and economic parity between the genders could take 170 years after a “dramatic slowdown in progress”.

In 2015, projections based on the Global Gender Gap Report data suggested that the economic gap could be closed within 118 years, or 2133. The latest report noted that the prospects for work beyond our lifetimes to 2186.

“Slowdown partly down (due) to chronic imbalances in salaries and labour force participation despite the fact that, in 95 coun tries, women attend university in equal or higher numbers than men,” the report said.

In this latest edition, the report finds that progress towards par ity in the key economic pillar has slowed dramatically with the gap – which stands at 59% – now larger than at any point since 2008. “Behind this decline are a number of factors. One is salary with women around the world on average earning just over half of what men earn despite, on aver age, working longer hours...,” WEF said.

Another challenge is stagnant labour force participation, with the global average for women at