India has slipped 28 places to rank 140th among 156 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021, becoming the third-worst performer in South Asia. Most of the decline occurred on the political empowerment subindex, with the number of women ministers dropping to 9.1 per cent in 2021 from 23.1 per cent in 2019.

“The share of women in professional and technical roles declined further to 29.2 per cent. The share of women in senior and managerial positions also remains low: only 14.6 per cent of these positions are held by women and there are only 8.9 per cent firms with female top managers,” it said.