India Remains at 131st Rank in Global Gender Parity Index, Pg12

Key Highlights:

• India maintained its 131st rank out of 145 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index 2026, released by the World Economic Forum.
• The country closed 64.5% of its overall gender gap, which is below the global average of 69.2%.
• Iceland, Finland, and Norway secured the top three positions, while Chad was the lowest-ranked country.
• Despite a slight improvement in its overall gender parity score, India's global ranking remained unchanged.

Gender Gap Index.jpg

Detailed Insights:

• The Global Gender Gap Index assesses gender parity across four key dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.
• India's strongest performance was in Political Empowerment, where it ranked 67th globally with 24.5% of the gap closed.
• In Educational Attainment, India achieved 96.6% parity, and in Health and Survival, it reached 95.6% parity.
• India's weakest area was Economic Participation and Opportunity, with a parity score of 41.2%, placing it 143rd globally.
• Globally, full gender parity is estimated to be 120 years away at the current rate of progress.
• India's gender parity has improved by 4.3 percentage points since 2006, primarily due to gains in educational attainment.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Global Gender Gap Index: An annual index by the World Economic Forum benchmarking gender parity across four key dimensions.
• World Economic Forum (WEF): An international non-governmental and lobbying organization based in Switzerland, known for its annual meeting in Davos.
• Gender Parity: A state of equality in terms of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender.