India’s Gender Gap

India has ranked 131st out of 148 countries in the Global Gender Gap Report 2025 released by the World Economic Forum, revealing critical deficits in economic participation, health outcomes, and gender parity, despite India's rise as a global economic and digital leader.

Structural Gaps in Health and Survival

• Skewed Sex Ratio and Poor Health Indicators:India’s sex ratio at birth remains among the most skewed globally, and women’s healthy life expectancy is now lower than men’s, highlighting persistent son preference and neglect in reproductive and preventive healthcare.
• Widespread Anaemia as a Developmental Setback: As per NFHS-5, 57% of Indian women aged 15–49 are anaemic, impacting their learning, productivity, and safe pregnancy outcomes, pointing to a systemic neglect of women’s nutrition and primary health infrastructure.
• Failure of Budgetary Prioritisation;Inadequate public investment in primary healthcare, particularly for rural and low-income women, shows that women’s health is not being treated as a development priority, which impedes economic inclusion.

Economic Exclusion and Unpaid Work

• Low Labour Force Participation and Wage Disparity: India ranks 143rd on Economic Participation and Opportunity, with women earning less than one-third of men and a stubbornly low labour participation rate, contradicting its demographic dividend advantage.
• Invisible Care Economy in Policy: Indian women perform 7 times more unpaid care work than men, as per the Time Use Survey, yet this labour remains invisible in national accounting and poorly represented in gender budgeting or public infrastructure.
• Missed Economic Opportunity: According to McKinsey Global Institute (2015), closing gender gaps could have added $770 billion to India’s GDP by 2025. This missed opportunity highlights the economic cost of gender inequality.

Demographic Challenges and the Policy Imperative

• Rising Elderly Population and Gendered Dependency:By 2050, nearly 20% of India’s population will be senior citizens, mostly elderly women. The lack of institutional care infrastructure poses a risk of economic and social dependency.
• Shrinking Working-Age Population: As fertility rates fall below replacement levels (NFHS-5), a rising dependency ratio due to women’s exit from the workforce could undermine fiscal stability and growth potential.
• Need for Integrated Policy Interventions:Solutions require investment in health systems, redistribution of unpaid care work, and treating women as economic contributors, not just policy beneficiaries—critical to sustaining economic momentum and demographic advantage.

Practice Question:

"Discuss how structural gaps in women's health, economic participation, and unpaid care work contribute to India’s gender inequality. How can integrated policy reforms reverse the trend and support India’s demographic and economic stability?"   (250 words)