India remains at 131 on Global Gender Gap Index

• India retained the 131st rank on the Global Gender Gap Index 2026 released by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Key points on India in the Index:

• In India the progress towards gender parity stood at 64.5 per cent, below the global average.

• While India’s score improved slightly over the previous year, its global ranking remained unchanged at 131.

• Overall, India’s gender parity increased by 4.3 percentage points since 2006, primarily due to gains in educational attainment.

• In the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, India reported a 41.2 per cent parity score, 0.5 higher than the previous edition but 3.5 percentage points lower from its best result in 2013.

• Strong advances in professional and technical workers doubled parity from 26.6 per cent in 2006 to 49.9 per cent in 2026 in India.

• Representation among legislators, senior officials and managers also improved by 10 percentage points since the 2006 edition but it remains comparatively low at 13.1 per cent.

• Parity in labour-force participation saw a marginal improvement over the past two decades, standing at 44.1 per cent in 2026.

• In the Educational Attainment subindex, India posted a 96.6 per cent parity score, though it fell by 0.5 percentage points from the previous year.

• In ‘Health and Survival’, India improved its score from previous year’s  edition, reaching 95.6 per cent parity.

• Despite an upward trajectory since 2017, India’s sex ratio at birth in 2026 continued to stand nearly one percentage point lower than in 2006.

• Political Empowerment was India’s highest ranked subindex in 2026, with 24.5 per cent of the gap closed and a global rank of 67th.

• India had one of the highest starting parity scores on the head-of-state indicator (42.9 per cent in 2006), which increased to 72.3 per cent over the index’s first decade, reflecting many years of female leadership within the indicator’s rolling 50-year reference period.

• However, since 2021, the indicator’s score has declined to its present 40.7 per cent.

• Across other indicators, parity remained comparatively lower in India.

• In Parliament, a 16.1 per cent gender gap was closed in 2026, marking an overall gain of 7 percentage points since 2006.

• At the ministerial level, India has made an overall advance of 2.4 percentage points, from 3.5 per cent in 2006 to 5.9 per cent in 2026. 

• However, it was sharply below the country’s highest score of 30 per cent in 2019.