India marks a relative drop in gender parity

Article Title: India marks a relative drop in gender parity

13-06-2025

Social Issues Current Affairs Analysis

Context

• The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2025 has ranked India at 131 out of 148 countries, with a parity score of just 64.1%.

• The report released on Thursday puts India among the lowest-ranked countries in South Asia.

• India had ranked 129 out of 146 countries last year.

• The report said while the global gender gap has closed to 68.8%, marking the strongest annual advancement since the COVID-19 pandemic, full parity remains 123 years away at current rates.

Iceland leads the rankings for the 16th year running, followed by Finland, Norway, the U.K. and New Zealand

Bangladesh emerged as the best performer in South Asia, jumping 75 positions to rank 24 globally with notable gains in “political empowerment and economic participation”.

• The 19th edition of the report, which covers 148 economies, revealed both encouraging momentum and persistent structural barriers facing women worldwide.

• The Global Gender Gap Index measures gender parity across four key dimensions: economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; health and survival; and political empowerment. The Indian economy’s overall performance improved in absolute terms by 0.3 points

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