India’s rank improves from 126 to 113
The World Bank presented in-depth analysis of the challenges obstructing women's entry into the global workforce, hindering their ability to contribute to prosperity for themselves, their families and their communities. Photo: iStock Legal rights for women worldwide are significantly lower than initially perceived, according to a new report by the World Bank Group. When considering legal distinctions related to violence and childcare, women are found to have less than two-thirds or 64 per cent of the rights enjoyed by men, it has found. Earlier estimates projected women had 77 per cent of the rights.
Eliminating discriminatory laws and practices hindering women from working or initiating businesses could result in a more than 20 per cent increase in global gross domestic product. This, in turn, has the potential to double the rate of global growth in the upcoming decade, the World Bank said.
Women, Business and the Law 2024 report was released March 4, 2023. The multilateral development bank releases a series of reports every year that analyse laws and regulations affecting women’s economic opportunity in 190 economies. The paper presented in-depth analysis of the challenges obstructing women’s entry into the global workforce, hindering their ability to contribute to prosperity for themselves, their families and their communities.
Read more: It will take 3 centuries to close gender gap completely, warns UN
The new index measured performance on legal frameworks across 10 indicators: Safety, mobility, workplace, pay, marriage, parenthood, childcare, entrepreneurship, assets and pension. Two of these indicators were crucial, World Bank pointed out — safety from violence and access to childcare services.
Notably, no country, including the most affluent economies, ensures equal opportunities for women, the latest report found. However, India’s rank has marginally improved to 113, with a score of 74.4 per cent. While the country’s score has remained constant since 2021, its ranking witnessed a decline from 122 in 2021 to 125 in 2022 and further to 126 in the 2023 index.
Indian women have just 60 per cent of the legal rights compared to men, slightly below the global average of 64.2 per cent, the document found. However, India outperformed its South Asian counterparts, where women have only 45.9 per cent of the legal protections enjoyed by men. When it comes to constraints on freedom of movement and constraints related to marriage, the country got a full score.
Read more: Sub-Saharan Africa might need nearly a century to achieve gender parity: Global Gender Gap Report
India receives one of its lowest scores in the indicator evaluating laws impacting women’s pay. To enhance this aspect, the country could explore measures such as mandating equal pay for equivalent work, permitting women to work at night on par with men and enabling women to engage in industrial jobs on an equal footing with men, the World Bank recommended.
When it comes to supportive frameworks, India scored higher than both the global and South Asian averages. The lowest indicator in frameworks was childcare and the report recommended creating a publicly accessible registry or database of childcare providers and implementing a well-defined application process for parents seeking government financial support for childcare services, among others.
Globally, the practical gender gap is very wide, the report found, on assessing the disparity between legal reforms and actual outcomes for women. Shockingly, there is a substantial implementation gap, with countries, on average, establishing less than 40 per cent of the required systems for full implementation.
Read more: Only 1% women live in countries with high gender parity, female empowerment: UN report
For instance, while 98 economies have enacted laws mandating equal pay for women, fewer than one in five have adopted measures or mechanisms addressing the pay gap.
Effective implementation of equal-opportunity laws necessitates a robust supporting framework, including strong enforcement mechanisms, gender-related pay disparity tracking systems and accessible healthcare services for women surviving violence, it said..
Indermit Gill, Chief Economist of the World Bank Group and Senior Vice President for Development Economics said:
Women have the power to turbocharge the sputtering global economy. Yet, all over the world, discriminatory laws and practices prevent women from working or starting businesses on an equal footing with men. Closing this gap could raise global gross domestic product by more than 20 per cent – essentially doubling the global growth rate over the next decade — but reforms have slowed to a crawl. WBL 2024 identifies what governments can do to accelerate progress toward gender equality in business and the law.
The report shed light on the challenges ahead, even for countries implementing equal-opportunity laws. Despite Togo’s standout status in Sub-Saharan African countries, enacting laws that provide women with 77 per cent of men’s rights, the country has only established 27 per cent of the necessary systems for full implementation.
Read more: Prejudices against women didn’t reduce in last decade; 90% people still hold gender bias: UN
In 2023, governments made strides in advancing legal equal-opportunity reforms in three categories—pay, parental rights and workplace protections. However, the report revealed poor performance in the two new categories being tracked—access to childcare and women’s safety.
Women’s safety emerged as a significant weakness, with a global average score of just 36, indicating that women have barely a third of the required legal protections against domestic violence, sexual harassment, child marriage and femicide. Childcare laws also receive low scores, with only 78 economies providing financial or tax support for parents and just 62 having quality standards for childcare services.
The report underscored the obstacles women face in entrepreneurship, pay disparities and retirement age inequalities. Urgency is emphasised in reforming laws and enacting public policies to empower women to work and engage in business, it added.
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