Bridging the gap – Efforts to reduce gender disparities must continue in earnest

Source: The post is based on an article “Bridging the gap – Efforts to reduce gender disparities must continue in earnest” published in The Hindu on 24th June 2023.  

Syllabus: GS 2 – Issues Related with Women

Relevance: About the Gender Gap Report, 2023 and reducing gender disparities. 

News: India has seen a rise in its ranking in the annual Gender Gap Report, 2023.  

What are the key findings of the Gender Gap Report, 2023? 

What concerns lie with India in reducing gender disparities? 

Despite the improvement in ranking, there is still more that can be done by India. 

For instance, India still has room for progress in the four key areas of the report: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.  

Further, despite India’s improvement in female political empowerment with the representation of women of over 40% in local governance, women still represent only 15.1% of parliamentarians. 

Therefore, Parliament should take efforts in reducing the parity by acting on the long-pending Women’s Reservation Bill, introduced in 1996. The bill proposes to reserve 33% of seats in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies for women. 

Moreover, even though improvement in sex ratio at birth has closed the gender parity, concerns still lie in India’s performance in health and survival. 

What measures can be taken by India for reducing gender disparities? 

India must ensure equal access to education for girls, from school to college along with providing opportunities for paid work. 

Moreover, offering girls education that guarantees job opportunities can enhance overall development indicators, including nutrition. It can also break the cycle of early marriage and its negative impact on maternal and child health.