Women, Business and the Law Report

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in News?
• What is Women, Business and the Law (WBL) Project?
• News Summary Regarding WBL Report 2023

Why in News?

• According to the World Bank’s (WB) Women, Business and the Law report 2023 – an index on the life cycle of a working woman, India’s score dropped to 74.4 out of 100.

What is Women, Business and the Law (WBL) Project?

Image Caption: Expanding the Scope of WBL Report

• It is a World Bank Group project collecting data on the laws and regulations that affect women’s economic opportunity.
• It is committed to informing research and policy discussions about the state of women’s economic opportunities and empowerment.
• It demonstrates the progress made while emphasising the work still to be done to ensure economic empowerment for all.
• Since 2009, the project has aided economies to achieve gender equality and hence become more resilient.
• It covers 190 economies and eight topics relevant to women’s economic participation and the 2023 report measures the legal differences on access to economic opportunities between men and women.
• A score of 100 on the Index means that women are on an equal standing with men on all the eight indicators being measured.
• In the 2023 index only 14 (Belgium, Canada, Denmark, etc) economies scored a perfect 100.

Image Caption: 8 Indicators of the WBL Report

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News Summary Regarding WBL Report 2023

What are the India Specific Findings in the WBL Report 2023?

For India, the Index used data on the laws and regulations applicable in Mumbai, viewed as the country’s main business city.

The laws affecting the Indian working woman’s pay, pension, work after having children, starting and running a business, property and inheritance, do not provide for equality with Indian men, dragging India’s score down to 74.4.

India scored higher than the 63.7 average for the South Asian region, though lower than Nepal which had the region’s highest score of 80.6.

India gets a perfect score, when it comes to constraints on freedom of movement, laws affecting women’s decisions to work and constraints related to marriage.

• Reforms needed: To improve on the Pay indicator, India may wish to consider –
  • Mandating equal remuneration for work of equal value,
  • Allowing women to work at night in the same way as men, and
  • Allowing women to work in an industrial job in the same way as men.

Q1) Who publishes the Women, Business and the Law (WBL) report?

It is a World Bank Group project collecting data on the laws and regulations that affect women’s economic opportunity. Since 2009, the project has aided economies to achieve gender equality. It covers 190 economies and a score of 100 on the Index means that women are on an equal standing with men.

Q2) What is the performance of India in the 2023 Women, Business and the Law (WBL) report?

The laws affecting the Indian working woman’s pay, pension, work after having children, starting and running a business, property and inheritance, do not provide for equality with Indian men, dragging India’s score down to 74.4.

Source: India scores 74.4 in World Bank index on life cycle of working women | Worldbank.org

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlTm424HPbI