A bridge too far: India slips 21 slots on WEF Gender Gap index

According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap index, India slipped 21 places to a lowly 108, behind neighbours China and Bangladesh, primarily due to less participation of women in the economy and low wages.

 Moreover, India’s latest ranking is 10 notches lower than its reading in 2006 when the WEF started measuring the gender gap. 

According to the WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2017, India has closed 67 per cent of its gender gap, less than many of its international peers, and some of its neighbours like Bangladesh ranked 47th while China was placed at 100th. 

Globally also, this year’s story is a bleak one. For the first time since the WEF began measuring the gap across four pillars — health, education, the workplace and political representation — the global gap has actually widened.