By Promit Chakroborty
Advancing women’s equality in the countries of Asia Pacific, the report suggests, could add $4.5 trillion to their collective GDP annually in 2025, a 12% increase over a business-as-usual GDP trajectory.
New Delhi: Gender inequality in India is extremely high at the workplace and in terms of legal protection and political voice, according to a recent report by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) for the Asia-Pacific region. The report assessed inequality on the basis of a Gender Parity Score (GPS) that uses 15 indicators of gender equality in work and society. With 1.0 signifying parity, India’s score was 0.30 in gender equality at work and 0.78 in legal protection and political voice.
Advancing women’s equality in the countries of Asia Pacific, the report suggests, could add $4.5 trillion to their collective GDP annually in 2025, a 12% increase over a business-as-usual GDP trajectory. This presumes a best-in-region scenario in which each country matches the rate of progress of the fastest-improving country in its region — China in the case of the Asia-Pacific. If this were achieved, India would add $770 billion in 2025 over and above its business-as-usual GDP, it says.
Comparing the 15 indicators under four broad categories, the report finds India behind the Asia-Pacific average in all four, but ahead of Bangladesh and Pakistan. It notes, however, that India has progressed faster than any other country in the Asia-Pacific region in the last 10 years, primarily due to advances in education and a reduction in maternal mortality.
Source: The Indian Express
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