Gender equality: Rank declines a notch in 2022 against last year

Despite India maintaining a consistent performance on gender equality, its rank in this area in legal terms has declined to 124th among 190 countries in 2022 against 123rd a year ago and 117th in 2020, according to an index compiled by a World Bank study.

The 2022 study, “Women, Business and the Law”, has taken into account legal reforms in the period from October 2, 2020, to October 1, 2021.

India’s position went down despite its score remaining 74.4 out of 100 in all the three years. This means other countries reformed faster than India did in bridging the gender gap.

The ranking is on the basis of legal reforms on eight counts — mobility, workplace, pay, marriage, parenthood, entrepreneurship, assets, and pension.

India got the lowest — 25 per cent — in “pay” in each of the three years, followed by 40 per cent in “parenthood”. Its score in “entrepreneurship” and “pension” was 75 per cent in each of these years, while in “assets” it was 80 per cent.

It received 100 per cent in “mobility”, “workplace”, and “marriage”.

When asked why India’s rank declined even though its score was the same in all the three years, an expert involved in the study said while India had not followed up on its reforms after they were put into motion, other countries, especially its neighbours, had improved, which is shown in their performance.

Nepal was behind India in 2020 but went ahead in 2021 and 2022. It improved its position a notch to 88th in the 2022 report from 89th in 2021.

Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Bangladesh were behind India in all three years. Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan too improved their positions by a notch each to 131st, 147th, and 167th, respectively, in the 2022 report over the previous year’s.

Bangladesh’s rank remained the same at 174th in both these years.

When asked whether there were not enough laws in India to enforce equal pay gender-wise, another expert said the reasons for the pay gap between genders ranged from socioeconomic to structural factors.

“Even educated women are not allowed to work by their families. Women who do join the workforce often need to take extended leave for maternity and child care. All these factors lead up to women falling behind men when it comes to their earnings,” he said.

He quoted Monster India’s report, which said in India men earned a median gross hourly salary of Rs 288.68 while women got Rs 207.85.

“This is even though we have the Equal Remuneration Act,” he said.

Parul Soni, founder and secretary general, Association of Business Women in Commerce and Industry (ABWCI), said India needed to do more on the “entrepreneurship” indicator, which measures restrictions on women’s legal capacity as well as laws prescribing equal access to credit. Collateral constraints and social norms are major reasons for this gender credit gap.

He said women worldwide faced practical and regulatory barriers to becoming entrepreneurs. Access to finance is a major hurdle, leaving women with an estimated $1.7 trillion of unmet demand for credit.

For example, due to lenders’ gender bias, women-led enterprises in Vietnam have a 34 per cent higher likelihood that loans will be denied to them than it is for men-led firms.

“India also faces the same problem. However, increasing women’s control of finances by combining access to bank accounts with skills training can shift conservative social norms and increase women’s work. We still lack a legal provision that expressly prohibits gender-based discrimination in access to credit,” Soni said.

The “parenthood” indicator examines laws affecting women’s work during and after pregnancy, including paid leave, and those prohibiting firms from dismissing workers because they are pregnant. Apart from that, the reform pushes for leave for men or partners for undertaking responsibility.

The global average for “leave to partners” is about 20 days while in South Asia it is around five days. The global average for “maternity leave” comes to about 190 days.

When asked why India had scored just 40 per cent in this category even as women were given maternal leave, the second expert said working mothers were earlier allowed to take 12 weeks of paid leave. In 2017, this was extended to 26 weeks.