World Economic Forum agrees to make changes in criteria for gender gap reports

World Economic Forum agrees to make changes in criteria for gender gap reports

Subject: Governance

Section: Reports and Indices

Context: World Economic Forum (WEF) will take into account the participation of women at panchayat level to rank countries in its future Global Gender Gap reports, which will better India’s position at the global level.

Concerns in Report ranking:

• For women’s political participation, the WEF looks at the number of women in the Union Cabinet and members in both houses of Parliament.
• It did not even consider Ministers of State, women MLAs and state ministers.
• To completely ignore political participation at the panchayat level in India is bringing about a flawed and unjust view on women empowerment.
• There are 4-million women in the Indian panchayat system.

Global Gender Gap Report

• The Global Gender Gap Report is an index designed to measure gender equality.
• It was first published in 2006 by the World Economic Forum
• It assesses countries on how well they are dividing their resources and opportunities among their male and female populations, regardless of the overall levels of these resources and opportunities.
• The Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks gender parity across four key dimensions or sub-indices:
  • Economic participation and opportunity – outcomes on salaries, participation levels and access to high-skilled employment
  • Educational attainment – outcomes on access to basic and higher level education
  • Political empowerment – outcomes on representation in decision-making structures
  • Health and survival – outcomes on life expectancy and sex ratio.
• World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked India at 135 out of 146 countries in its Global Gender Gap (GGG) Index for 2022.
• Now, women in the Indian panchayat system whose political contribution will be enumerated.