India on Global Gender Gap Index: Women continue to earn less than men, only Rs 40 for every Rs 100 earned respectively

The World Economic Forum's release of the Global Gender Gap Index data on Wednesday highlighted a concerning trend for India, as the nation saw a drop of two positions, now ranking 129th out of 146 countries in the index.

In the South Asian region, Pakistan exhibited the weakest performance, while Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan surpassed India in the rankings. A stark statistic emerged indicating that Indian women earn only Rs 40 for every Rs 100 earned by men, reflecting a significant gender pay gap.

India also joined the group of nations with notably low economic gender parity, with the country's economic parity recorded at 39.8%. While India has made progress in closing 64.1% of its gender gap in 2024, it still falls short of reaching the economic parity level of 46% observed in 2012, requiring a 6.2 percentage point increase.

Among countries with the lowest economic gender parity levels, Bangladesh stood out with a mere 31.1%, alongside Sudan with 33.7%, Iran with 34.3%, Pakistan with 36%, and Morocco with 40.6%. These nations demonstrated less than 30% gender parity in estimated earned income, underscoring the significant challenge of bridging the economic participation gap between men and women on a global scale.

Conversely, countries like Liberia, boasting an economic gender parity of 87.4%, and Botswana with 85.4%, represented the highest levels of economic gender parity, thanks to a strong labor force participation rate among women, exceeding 95%.

Iceland secured the top rank as the most gender-equal country globally, with Finland and Norway following closely behind. 

Despite a marginal 0.1 percentage point closure in the gender gap among 101 continuously evaluated countries since 2006, as indicated by the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2024, the projected timeline to achieve full gender parity hovers at 134 years, translating to approximately five generations from now based on current progress rates.