India slips to 114th spot in WEF Gender Gap Index

India registered a marked deterioration in its performance as measured by a World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap index that ranked countries on the basis of providing equal opportunity to women in business, education, health and political empowerment.




The index for this year places India 114th out of 142 countries, down from the 101st position last year.

India’s poor performance was largely on account of deterioration in economic participation and opportunity, as well as educational attainment.

While no one country could close its overall gender gap, Nordic nations remain the most gender-equal societies in the world.

Last year’s top four -- Iceland (1), Finland (2), Norway (3) and Sweden (4) -- retained their rankings. Rwanda entered the index for the first time at the seventh position.
Among the BRICS grouping, the highest-placed nation was South Africa (18), supported by strong scores on political participation. Brazil came next at 71, followed by Russia (75), China (87) and India (114).