Context

• India ranked 95th out of a total 129 countries in the first-ever SDG Gender Index, which measures strides made in achieving gender commitments against internationally set targets.
• This SDG Gender Index comes close on the heels of the gender gap index of the World Economic Forum where India was ranked 108th.

About

SDG Gender Index:

• It is an index that measures the state of gender equality aligned to 14 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 129 countries and 51 issues cover aspects such as poverty, health, education, literacy, political representation and equality at the workplace.
• It is developed by Equal Measures 2030 (EM2030) with joint efforts by regional and global organisations like African Women’s Development and Communication Network, Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and International Women’s Health Coalition.

Significance of the Index:

• It provides a snapshot of where the world stands, right now, linked to the vision of gender equality set forth by the 2030 Agenda.
• Further, it provides for tools to support data-driven analysis and to hold governments accountable for gender equality in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• The overall index scores are based on a scale of 0–100. A score of 100 indicates the achievement of gender equality in relation to the underlying indicators. A score of 50 would indicate that a country is about halfway to meeting its goal.

</table border="1">Highlights of the index report released:

• The index finds that no country has fully achieved the promise of gender equality and that the global average score of 65.7 out of 100 is “poor”. This means that almost 1.4 billion, or 40%, of the world’s girls and women live in countries failing on gender equality and another 1.4 billion live in countries that barely pass.
• Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Slovenia, Germany, Canada, Ireland, and Australia rank as the top 10 countries in the index.
• The bottom 10 countries comprise Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Yemen, Congo, DR Congo and Chad.
• India’s score of 56.2 means that it is among 43 countries that fall in the ‘very poor’ category.
• India scores the highest in health (79.9), followed by hunger and nutrition (76.2) and energy (71.8).
• Among the SDGs, on which our country performed poorly are seats held by women in the Supreme Court (18.2), partnerships (18.3), proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments (23.6), industry, infrastructure and innovation (38.1) and climate (43.4).

Highlights of the index report released:

• The index finds that no country has fully achieved the promise of gender equality and that the global average score of 65.7 out of 100 is “poor”. This means that almost 1.4 billion, or 40%, of the world’s girls and women live in countries failing on gender equality and another 1.4 billion live in countries that barely pass.
• Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Slovenia, Germany, Canada, Ireland, and Australia rank as the top 10 countries in the index.
• The bottom 10 countries comprise Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Yemen, Congo, DR Congo and Chad.
• India’s score of 56.2 means that it is among 43 countries that fall in the ‘very poor’ category.
• India scores the highest in health (79.9), followed by hunger and nutrition (76.2) and energy (71.8).
• Among the SDGs, on which our country performed poorly are seats held by women in the Supreme Court (18.2), partnerships (18.3), proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments (23.6), industry, infrastructure and innovation (38.1) and climate (43.4).