Women's Economic Empowerment (WEE) Index: A Data-Driven Approach to Closing the Gender Gap
UPSC Relevance
Prelims: Indian Economy (GDP, Labour Force Participation Rate); Social Development (Women's Issues, Gender Gap); Governance (Indices, Gender Budgeting).
Mains:
General Studies Paper 1 (Society): Role of women and women's organization; Social empowerment.
General Studies Paper 2 (Social Justice & Governance): Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections; Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Human Resources; Government policies and interventions.
General Studies Paper 3 (Economy): Indian Economy and issues relating to growth, development and employment; Inclusive growth.
Key Highlights from the News
India, aiming to become a $30 trillion economy by 2047, urgently needs to increase women's economic participation. Currently, women contribute only 18% to India's GDP.
To address this issue and formulate data-driven policies, the Uttar Pradesh government launched India's first Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Index.
This is a district-level tool that measures women's participation across five key areas: employment, education, entrepreneurship, and safety.
Women are often invisible in data that forms the basis for policy-making and investment. To bridge this gap, all government data needs to be gender-disaggregated data.
When data inequalities become visible, steps are taken to address them (e.g., in UP, when low representation of women was found in the transport sector, new recruitment strategies were devised).
Gender budgeting should not be limited to special schemes for women. Instead, a "gender lens" should be applied to the budget of all departments.
The article suggests that Uttar Pradesh's model can be followed by other states.
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