India lags in gender parity: WEF

New Delhi: India was on Wednesday ranked low at 135th place in terms of gender parity, despite an improvement of five places since last year on better performance in areas of economic participation and opportunity.

Iceland retained its place as the world's most gender-equal country, followed by Finland, Norway, New Zealand and Sweden, as per the annual Gender Gap Report 2022 of the World Economic Forum (WEF) released in Geneva. Only 11 countries are ranked below India on the index of 146 nations, with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Congo, Iran and Chad being the worst-five. The WEF warned that the cost of living crisis is expected to hit women hardest globally with a widening gender gap in the labour force and it will take another 132 years (compared to 136 in 2021) to close the gender gap. The report further said that Covid-19 has set gender parity back by a generation and a weak recovery was making it worse globally.

On India, the WEF said its gender gap score recorded its seventh-highest level in the last 16 years, but it continues to rank among the worst performers on various parameters. "With a female population of approximately 662 million, India's level of attainment weighs heavily on regional rankings," it said. Recovering ground since 2021, India registered the most significant and positive change to its performance on Economic Participation and Opportunity.