India is now a global economic power, a digital innovator, and home to the world’s largest youth population. But the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report (2025) is a sobering reminder that when it comes to gender equality, India remains far behind.

About Global Gender Gap Report

• The Global Gender Gap Report is published annually by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
• It measures the relative gap between women and men, regardless of the overall levels of income or development of a country.
• The report covers four key dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.
• The index scores range from 0 (complete inequality) to 1 (complete parity).

The Alarming Reality of India’s Position

• India has ranked 131 out of 148 countries in the Global Gender Gap Report 2025, slipping two places from its position last year.
• With a parity score of just 64.1%, India is among the lowest-ranked countries in South Asia, according to the report. 
• India ranked 129 last year. 
• The nation’s scores are particularly low in two critical areas: economic participation and health and survival. These pillars are essential for meaningful gender parity.

Challenges in Women’s Health and Autonomy

• Skewed Sex Ratio at Birth: India’s sex ratio at birth remains among the most distorted globally, revealing a deeply rooted cultural preference for sons.
• Decline in Women’s Healthy Life Expectancy: Women in India now experience a lower healthy life expectancy compared to men, indicating persistent gender-based health disparities.
• Neglect of Reproductive and Preventive Health: These adverse outcomes stem from chronic underinvestment in reproductive health services, preventive care, and nutrition, especially for women in low-income and rural areas.
• High Prevalence of Anaemia Among Women: An alarming 57 percent of Indian women aged 15 to 49 are anaemic — a widespread yet preventable condition.
• Systemic Failure to Prioritize Women’s Health: This health crisis reflects a deeper structural failure to treat women’s health as a core component of national development policy.

The Issue of Economic Exclusion

• Alarming Ranking: India’s performance on the Economic Participation and Opportunity sub-index is particularly dismal, with a rank of 143rd out of 148 countries. 
• Huge Wage Gap: Women consistently earn less than a third of what men do, and female labour force participation remains stubbornly low.
• Missed Economic Opportunity: In 2015, the McKinsey Global Institute projected that closing gender gaps could add 770 billion dollars to India’s GDP by 2025. 
  • Tragically, in 2025, India has largely missed this immense opportunity. 
  • At the current rate of progress, it may take over a century to close the global economic gender gap, and India lags even this slow trajectory.

Invisible Labour and Critical Policy Gaps

• Informal Sector Work: Women are predominantly engaged in informal and subsistence-level employment, lacking job security and formal recognition.
• Underrepresentation in Decision-Making:  They remain severely under-represented in critical spaces such as boardrooms and budget committees, leading to policies that overlook their specific needs and experiences.
• Burden of Unpaid Care Work: Indian women perform nearly seven times more unpaid domestic work than men, significantly limiting their time, mobility, and economic participation.
  • This essential labour is largely ignored in national accounting and receives inadequate support in public policy frameworks.
  • Investing in childcare centres, elder care services, and maternity benefits is vital to easing women’s burden and increasing their workforce participation.
  • The lack of investment in care services represents both a gender equity failure and an economic oversight.

The Demographic Imperative for Gender Equality

• Demographic Shift:  In India, the percentage of senior citizens is expected to nearly double by 2050, reaching close to 20 percent of the total population. 
  • This demographic shift will predominantly involve very old women, particularly widows, who often face high dependency. 
• Shrinking Workforce: Concurrently, fertility rates have already fallen below the replacement level. 
  • This means the working-age population will shrink, while the care needs of the elderly will rise significantly. 
• Strain on Financial resources: If women continue to be excluded from or forced to exit the workforce, the dependency ratio will rise even faster, placing greater strain on a shrinking pool of workers and undermining fiscal stability. 
• Gender Equality is Essential: The only viable path to sustained economic growth in this scenario is to ensure that women are healthy, supported, and economically active. 

Way Forward

• Invest in Women-Centric Public Health Systems: There is an urgent need for robust public health systems that genuinely prioritize the specific needs of women, especially in reproductive and preventive care.
• Build Comprehensive Care Services: Developing childcare, elder care, and maternity support services is essential to redistribute the burden of unpaid work and enable women’s workforce participation.
• Recognition and Reform: Governments must recognize unpaid care work through regular time-use surveys, gender budgeting, and direct investments in care infrastructure.
• Learning from Global Best Practices: Countries like Uruguay and South Korea offer successful models of integrating care economies into national development plans.

Conclusion

The Global Gender Gap Report is far more than just a ranking; it is a stern warning. Unless India prioritizes gender equality as central to its economic and demographic future, it risks squandering the significant gains achieved thus far. A failure to act now will jeopardize the nation’s aspirations for growth and development.

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