Blakwall

According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2021 by WEF, India went down 28 places from the previous rank of 112 to currently being at 140. While the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown also played a significant role in increasing India’s gender gap by 4.3 per cent, the World Bank has estimated that female participation in the labour force has decreased to around 20 per cent over the last three decades. This decline in economic opportunities and workforce participation was initially chalked up to women leaving work to go for higher education. But the increase in the number of women going for higher education is just around 5 per cent over the last decade. In 2019, The National Statistical Office (NSO) conducted the first Time Use Survey to measure the participation of men and women in paid and unpaid activities. The survey provided information on the time spent in unpaid caregiving activities, volunteer work, unpaid domestic service-producing activities of the household members. It also inclu