Source: The post Gender data and WEE Index drive women’s economic empowerment has been created, based on the article “India’s economic ambitions need better gender data” published in “The Hindu” on 16 September 2025. Gender data and WEE Index drive women’s economic empowerment.
UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2-mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for
the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections. And GS Paper 3-inclusive growth
Context: Women contribute 18% to GDP, and 196 million employable women are outside work. FLFPR is 41.7%, yet only 18% are in formal jobs. India’s $30 trillion by 2047 ambition needs women’s economic roles to be visible, measurable, and actionable across governance.
Why visibility of women’s work matters?
- Economic stakes: Business-as-usual will forgo trillions of dollars. Inclusive growth fails if women remain invisible in policy and investment data.
- Participation is not enough: Opportunities must be created and counted. Systems should record outcomes and trigger action in every department.
- Hidden gaps stall reforms: India has many indices, but few gender-disaggregate. Hidden gaps stall reforms and entrench exclusion. A gender lens embedded in every dataset and decision unlocks action.
What the WEE Index does?
- First district-level framework: Uttar Pradesh launched India’s first Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Index. It embeds a gender lens in routine measurement and decision-making.
- Five economic levers tracked: It covers employment; education and skilling; entrepreneurship; livelihood and mobility; safety and inclusive infrastructure. It creates a common language for departments to align reforms.
- Visibility to action in transport: When inequities surface, action follows. In transport, analysis of women’s low presence among drivers and conductors led to redesigned recruitment and basic infrastructure fixes like women’s restrooms at bus terminals.
- From rates to structural barriers: The index maps drop-offs: school to skilling, skilling to work, entrepreneurship to credit. Women form over 50% of skilling enrolments but are a fraction of entrepreneurs, with even more limited credit. This highlights systemic barriers that can inform policy reform.
How to act at scale
- Universal gender-disaggregated systems: Make gender breakdowns normative in every departmental MIS—from MSME to transport to housing. Build local capacity to use data and create district gender action plans.
- Track quality, not just counts: Monitor retention, leadership, re-entry, and quality of employment, especially after Class 12 and post-graduation, where female dropouts surge.
- Rethink gender budgeting: Do not confine it to finance or welfare schemes. Apply a gender lens to every rupee across sectors. You cannot budget for what you do not measure.
- Replicate and scale: Uttar Pradesh’s pilot is a replicable foundation. Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Telangana can translate intent into district-wise plans, guiding budgets, infrastructure, and programmatic reforms. The WEE Index is a starting block, making visible what was invisible and moving women to the mainstream of growth.
Question for practice:
Discuss how gender-disaggregated data and the WEE Index can translate visibility into concrete reforms to close women’s economic gaps in India.
