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India's progress towards gender equality has accelerated in recent years, with increased investments and focus on women's leadership at the grassroots but social norms, limited workforce participation and gaps in safety measures hinder full gender parity, UN Women officials said. In an interview, Daniel Seymour, UN Women's Director of Strategic Partnerships and Susan Jane Ferguson, Country Representative for UN Women in India, shared insights on the country's strides and the challenges that remain. The conversation highlighted India's increased investments in women's empowerment and gender-responsive policies, yet stressed that deep-rooted social norms and limited financing continue to hamper full progress. "India's progress is significant, but closing the remaining gaps requires targeted efforts across both public and private sectors," Ferguson said. India has seen substantial growth in recent years, especially in gender-responsive budgeting, which has increased to 6.8 per cent, .
The Indian IT industry has seen significant progress in gender diversity with more women now in entry and mid-level workforce. However, their fair representation at the top and male-dominated corporate boardrooms is still disproportionate and "needs a lot of work", according to tech leaders. Any organisation which does not encourage, and indeed, proactively work towards equitable gender representation is unlikely to have a long business life span, even client acceptance, experts said adding companies need to offer flexi-scheduling and enable remote work options where needed, to support women juggling their professional responsibilities with their personal commitments and caregiver roles. Mentor circles at work, they point out, can also provide a strong support system, wherein senior women executives can handhold young working women and help them overcome obstacles to progression. "India is not doing bad when it comes to education for women. 29.5 per cent of engineers in our country