Answer

Introduction

Despite India’s rise as a global economic and digital powerhouse, the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report (2025) ranking at 131 out of 148 countries reveals deep structural and social barriers hindering gender parity. The country fares especially poorly in economic participation and health outcomes, indicating missed opportunities in fully integrating women into the workforce and national development.

Body

Key Reasons for Women’s Underrepresentation in the Economy

• Poor Health and Nutrition Outcomes Among Women: Widespread anaemia (57% among women aged 15–49, NFHS-5) reduces productivity, learning ability, and maternal health.
  Eg: Healthy life expectancy for Indian women is now lower than men’s.
• Skewed Sex Ratio and Son Preference: India’s sex ratio at birth remains one of the most skewed globally, indicating systemic gender bias.
• Low Female Labour Force Participation and Wage Gap: Women earn less than a third of what men do and remain concentrated in informal, subsistence work.
  Eg: India ranks 143rd on the Economic Participation and Opportunity sub index (WEF 2025).
• Burden of Unpaid Care Work: Indian women spend 289 minutes on unpaid domestic work and 137 minutes on unpaid caregiving.
• Limited Representation in Decision-Making Spaces: Women are absent in key economic and policy-making positions like corporate boards and budget committees.
• Invisibility in Economic Metrics and Budgets: Unpaid care work and informal contributions go unmeasured in GDP and planning frameworks.
  Eg: Women continue to earn less than a third of what men do, and female labour force participation remains stubbornly low.
• Demographic Pressure from Ageing Population: A growing elderly population (20% by 2050) will increase the care burden on women.

Focused Measures to Enhance Women’s Economic Role

• Invest in Women’s Health and Primary Care: Prioritise women in public health schemes, address anaemia, and improve access to reproductive care.
  Eg: Increased budget allocation for women’s primary health services is crucial to boost productivity.
• Formal Recognition and Support for Unpaid Care Work: Establish childcare and eldercare facilities and integrate the care economy into planning.
  Eg: Uruguay and South Korea show successful integration of care into development policy.
• Strengthen Gender-Responsive Budgeting and Data Collection: Institutionalise time-use surveys and track gendered impacts of public spending.
  Eg: Systematic accounting of women’s unpaid labour can guide targeted investments.
• Expand Women’s Access to Formal Employment: Provide skill development, flexible work arrangements, and ensure workplace safety.
• Implement Labour and Social Protection Reforms:
  Design maternity benefits, pensions, and leave policies that support working women and caregiving roles.
  Eg: Integrating labour, health, and welfare policies will reduce dropout from the workforce.
• Reframe Women as Economic Drivers, Not Beneficiaries:
  Shift narratives and policies to view women as co-builders of the economy.
  Eg: The Mckinsey Global Institute, in 2015, had projected that closing gender gaps could add $770 billion to India’s GDP by 2025. 

Conclusion

India’s low gender parity ranking is not just a social concern, it is a developmental and economic risk. Women’s economic inclusion can unlock vast growth potential, add trillions to GDP, and stabilise future demographic challenges. To move beyond symbolic slogans, India must treat gender equality as central to national planning, through health investment, care infrastructure, gender-responsive budgets, and transformative labour reforms.

DOWNLOAD PDF