India has turned up among the worst countries as far as the gender based disparities are concerned . The index first introduced by the World Economic Forum in 2006 is a frame work for capturing the magnitude of gender-based disparities and tracking their progress. The index bench marks national gender gaps on economic participation and opportunities. According to the index, female to male disparity is appalling. On the educational front India ranked 126 with female to male ratio with very low literacy rate. On the health front India is the second lowest performing country ranking 141 just ahead of Armenia. However, on political empowerment India ranked an impressive 15. It is the highest ranking with female head of state. Women have seen to turned out better in local government roles, make decisions with better outcomes for communities than men do when charged with budget decisions. They also appear to be more competent representatives than men obtaining more resources for their constituencies despite having significantly lower education and relevant labour market experience. On the brighter side when it comes to business especially protecting minority investors it is the only category in which India has shown an improvement from 2013 where as the overall performance of economic front has fallen considerably for ease of doing business. The World Bank index underscores a plethora of tough task for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Government which has said it wants to make India a business-friendly country.
