impact on economy by bridging the gender gap

BRIDGE THE GAP

Bridging the gender gap will have huge economic impact and could add Rs 46 lakh crore  to India’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2025, says a report by the McKinsey  Global Institute (MGI). The report said about 70 per cent rise in GDP would come from  raising India’s women labour-force participation rate MGI has developed a Gender Parity Score that uses the 15 indicators to measure the  progress each country has achieved on gender parity in society and the economy The report said gender disparity was high on three dimensions — gender equality in work,  legal protection and political voice, and physical security and autonomy The report found a huge variation in gender equality among India’s 32 states India’s share of women’s contribution to GDP is at 17 per cent, much lower than the global  average of 37 per cent  India would gain the most with Rs 190.2 lakh crore  added to annual GDP in 2025, 60 per  cent higher than business-as-usual The economic boost would translate to 1.4 per cent a year incremental GDP growth for  India. This would bring 68 million more women into the economy over this period, the  report said.

The report said gender inequality in India was high or extremely high on three dimensions in MGI’s framework — gender equality in work, legal protection and political voice, and physical security and autonomy — and medium to high on the fourth dimension of essential services and enablers of economic opportunity.

MGI has developed a gender parity score (GPS) that uses 15 indicators to measure each country’s progress on gender parity in society and the economy. GPS establishes a strong link between gender equality in society, attitudes and beliefs about the role of women, and gender equality in work.

In its analysis for India, MGI has introduced a new score, an India Female Empowerment Index or Femdex, to measure gender equality at the state level. It is based on a sub-set of 10 of the 15 indicators for which state-level data was available.

The average Femdex score of the top-five states closest to gender parity — Mizoram, Kerala, Meghalaya, Goa and Sikkim — stood at 0.67, which is comparable with a modified GPS (considering only the 10 indicators included in the Femdex) for Argentina, China and Indonesia.

 The average Femdex of India’s bottom-five states on gender parity — Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh — was 0.46, comparable to the modified GPS of Chad and Yemen.