India jumps 21 positions to rank 87th in WEF’s global gender gap

New Delhi, Oct 26 (IANS) India has substantially improved its rank in the Global Gender Gap index moving from 108th to 87th position within a year, according to a report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Wednesday.

It is ranked second in the South Asian region, next only to Bangladesh.

However, the 2016 report by WEF says that in terms of "health and survival", India still lags at 142nd rank, or third last, globally.

In terms of economic participation by women, India ranked 136 and in terms of education, it is at the 113th position.

The Global Gender Report by WEF said India had reported "progress this year on closing the gender gap with regard to wage equality and across all indicators of the Educational Attainment sub-index, fully closing its primary and secondary education enrolment gender gaps".

However, it also sees some regression on women's estimated earned income and the country "continues to rank third-lowest in the world on Health and Survival, remaining the world's least-improved country on this sub-index over the past decade", the report said.

The South Asian region, meanwhile, is lagging behind Sub-Saharan Africa, though it is better than the Middle East and North Africa.

Pakistan came last in the list of South Asian nations, and Bhutan was second last.

"With an average remaining gender gap of 33 percent, the South Asia region is the second-lowest scoring on this year's Global Gender Gap Index, ahead of the Middle East and North Africa and behind the Sub-Saharan Africa region," the report said.

Bangladesh and India are the top-ranked countries in the region, having closed just under 70 per cent and 68 per cent of their overall gender gap, respectively.

The lowest-ranked countries -- Bhutan and Pakistan -- have closed 64 per cent and 56 per cent, respectively, of their overall gender gap.

"No country in the region has fully closed its Educational Attainment gender gap, and only one country, Sri Lanka, has fully closed its Health and Survival gender gap," the report added.