GS Paper 2
Syllabus: vulnerable sections of the society and developments related to them, issues related to the development of the social sector, Gender Gap Index etc
Source: The Hindu, Indian Express
Context:
- India ranks 135 among a total of 146 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index, 2022, released by the World Economic Forum.
- The country is the worst performer in the world in the “health and survival” sub-index in which it is ranked 146.
Key Highlights:
- The Global Gender Report, 2022, says it will now take 132 years to reach gender parity, with the gap reducing only by four years since 2021 and the gender gap closed by 68. 1%.
- India ranks poorly among its neighbours and is behind Bangladesh (71), Nepal (96), Sri Lanka (110), Maldives (117) and Bhutan (126). Only the performance of Iran (143), Pakistan (145) and Afghanistan(146) was worse than India in South Asia. In 2021, India ranked 140 out of 156 nations.
- Indicators:
- It measures scores on a 0 to 100 scale, which can be interpreted as the distance covered towards parity or the percentage of the gender gap that has been closed.
- India ranks 146 in health and survival, 143 in economic participation and opportunity, 107 in educational attainment and 48 in political empowerment.
- The report noted that India’s score of 0.629 was its seventh highest score in the past 16 years.
- India also “recovered”ground since 2021 in economic participation and opportunity, though the report goes on to add that the labour force participation shrunk for both men (by 9.5 percentage points) and women (3 percentage points).
India’s stand on different sub-indices:
- Political Empowerment: This includes metrics such as:
- percentage of women in Parliament
- percentage of women in ministerial positions etc
- Of all the sub-indices, this is where India ranks the highest (48th out of 146)
- Iceland is ranked 1 with a score of 0. 874 and Bangladesh is ranked 9 with a score of 0.546.
- Economic Participation and Opportunity: This includes metrics such as:
- percentage of women who are part of the labour force
- wage equality for similar work
- earned income etc.
- India ranks a lowly 143 out of the 146 countries in contention even though its score has improved over 2021 from 0.326 to 0.350.
- India’s score is much lower than the global average, and only Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan are behind India on this metric.
- Educational Attainment: This sub-index includes metrics such as:
- Literacy rate and the enrolment rates in primary
- Secondary and tertiary education.
- Here India ranks 107th out of 146, and its score has marginally worsened since last year. In 2021, India was ranked 114 out of 156.
- Health and Survival: This includes two metrics:
- the sex ratio at birth (in %)
- healthy life expectancy (in years).
- India is ranked last (146) among all the countries.
- Its score hasn’t changed from 2021 when it was ranked 155th out of 156 countries.
| Some major reports published by WEF are:
● Energy Transition Index. ● Global Competitiveness Report. ● Global IT Report(WEF along with INSEAD, and Cornell University publishes this report. ● Global Gender Gap Report. ● Global Risk Report. ● Global Travel and Tourism Report. |
Insta Links:
Practice Questions:
Q. Public health system has limitations in providing universal health coverage. Do you think that the private sector could help in bridging the gap? What other viable alternatives would you suggest?(UPSC 2015)
Q. Which of the following reports is/are published by the World Economic Forum(WEF)?
- Global Gender Gap report
- Global Risk report
- Energy transition Index
- Global Hunger Index
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
- 1, 2 and 3 only
- 2 and 3 only
- 1 and 4 only
- 1, 2, 3 and 4
Ans: (a)
Justification;
Refer to the above table
