India Falls Under ‘Very Poor’ Category in SDG Gender Index
India has secured 95th rank in the first-ever SDG Gender Index, which measures strides made in achieving gender commitments against internationally set targets. The index which took the performances of 129 countries in total, concluded that while India is leading in certain SDGs, it is lagging way behind in achieving gender equality.
The index has been developed by Equal Measures 2030, which is a partnership among global and regional organisations from the civil society and the development and private sectors. It includes The African Women’s Development and Communication Network, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, International Women’s Health Coalition and Plan International.
The SDG Gender Index includes 51 indicators across 14 of the 17 official Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The indicators include those that are gender specific, as well as those that are not but have an effect on girls and women.
The overall index scores are based on a scale of 0–100. A score of 100 indicates the achievement of gender equality in relation to the underlying indicators. A score of 50 would indicate that a country is about halfway to meet its goal.
According to the index, none of the participating countries has fully achieved the promise of gender equality. The global average score attained by the countries is that of 65.7 out of 100, which is “poor”. However, India has scored 56.2 which is even below the global average and falls in ‘very poor’ category.
Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Slovenia, Germany, Canada, Ireland, and Australia rank as the top 10 countries in the index whereas, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Yemen, Congo, DR Congo and Chad are among the bottom 10 countries.
India scores the highest in health (79.9), followed by hunger (76.2) and energy (71.8). Among the SDGs, on which the country performs poorly are partnerships (18.3), industry, infrastructure and innovation (38.1) and climate (43.4).
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