A year after ranking 135 in The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap index, India has climbed 8 positions at 127 this year.
The index measures gender parity across four areas— economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
News reports on the rankings said India improved by 1.4 percentage points from 2022 figures— a partial recovery towards its 2020 parity level. While it had closed 64.3% of the overall gender gap and achieved parity with enrolment in all levels of education, it reached only 36.7% parity in economic participation.
India has achieved 25.3% parity in political empowerment with women representing 15.1% of parliamentarians— the highest for the country since the index’s inaugural edition in 2006.
The massive improvement in just a year is a boost for efforts by organizations like Avtar, which has been a pioneer in the space of women’s workforce participation. India’s commendable progress illustrates how tiny drops make a mighty ocean.
The number of second-career women employed via Avtar is over 1 lakh in two decades. The percentage of women in the workforce has risen from 25% in 2016 to over 34% in 2022 among the 100 Best Companies for Women in India.
