World Economic Forum agrees to make changes in criteria for gender gap reports

There are 1.4-million women in the Indian panchayat system whose political contribution will now be enumerated, added officials.

So far, the WEF looked at four major verticals to assess gender gap in a country — economic participation, political participation, health and education levels. For women’s political participation, the WEF looks at the number of women in the Union Cabinet and members in both houses of Parliament.

“It did not even consider Ministers of State, women MLAs and state ministers, which, we believe, is a big omission and needed to be rectified,’’ added officials.

Saadia Zahidi, the managing director of the Centre for the New Economy and Society that produces the ranking on behalf of the forum, has written to Irani saying that in the coming years, the WEF will collaborate with the Indian government on issues raised by the minister at the forum, “to assess in a globally comparable way participation of women in local political decision-making’’.

The WEF will also showcase on its digital platform’ the impact achieved by the Indian government through its gender-budgeting system, “promoting gender equality in all sectors and at all levels of governance”. For this, the WEF will collaborate with the 15th Finance Commission.

The WEF will also establish a ‘Skills and Gender Parity Accelerator’ in India to identify and scale up targeted public-private initiatives that will prepare the Indian workforce for the future, Zahidi said in her letter.

“India is the only country in the world that has a gendered dispersal of funds and gender budgeting. It was important to be considered. We negotiated that these indicators be included, and the WEF has agreed. India has also communicated how various schemes—such as Jan Dhan Yojana, Mudra, and Stand Up India—has had an impact on women empowerment,’’ added the officials.