- India’s ranking in the World Bank’s Women, Business, and Law index has improved significantly, rising to 113 out of 190 nations in the most recent assessment.
- It’s interesting to note that none of the world’s countries received a perfect score on the new measure, revealing widespread gender discrepancies in legal rights.
About Women, Business, and Law Index
- Overview: The Women, Business, and Law Index is a World Bank effort that tracks how laws and regulations affect women’s economic opportunities.
- Objective: The index establishes objective and measurable benchmarks for assessing global progress towards legal gender equality.
- Scores range from 0 to 100, with 100 representing equal legal rights for men and women.
- Areas Covered: The report evaluates eight crucial aspects, including mobility, workplace, wage, marriage, motherhood, entrepreneurship, assets, and pension.
- Milestone Edition: The 2024 version is the report’s tenth iteration.
India’s Performance
- India’s legal rights gap is somewhat lower than the global average of 64.2%, with women having 60% of the same rights as males.
- Regional Comparison: India surpassed its South Asian competitors, where women typically receive only 45.9% of the legal protections that men do.
- Supportive Frameworks: India’s performance in constructing supportive frameworks was inadequate, with only 54.2% of the required frameworks in place.
- Policy Efforts: India hopes to boost female labour force participation, which was 37% in 2022-23, much lower than many industrialised nations.
- OECD Comparison: In 2022, the female labour force participation rate in OECD countries surpassed 50%, underlining the gap that India hopes to close.
Source: https://m.economictimes.com/news/india/india-ranks-113-out-of-190-countries-in-the-world-banks-legal-gender-gap-index/articleshow/108212920.cms#:~:text=India%20ranks%20113%20in%20the,force%20participation%20rate%20is%2037%25.