Women, Business and Law Index

About Women, Business and Law Index

• It is a World Bank index measuring the enabling environment for women’s economic opportunity in 190 economies.
• The index measures how laws and regulations affect women’s economic opportunity on a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 means equal legal rights for men and women.
• The report covers eight related areas: Mobility, workplace, pay, marriage, parenthood, entrepreneurship, assets, and pension.
• The data offer objective and measurable benchmarks for evaluating global progress toward legal gender equality.
• It demonstrates the progress made while emphasising the work still to be done to ensure economic empowerment for all.
• Highlights of 2024 Index:
  • o It is the 10th edition of the report.
  • o Globally, none of the countries has a full score in the new index, indicating that women did not enjoy equal rights in any of the countries.
  • o India's ranking improved to 113 out of 190 countries.
  • o Indian women enjoyed 60% of the legal rights given to men as per the new report, lower than the global average of 64.2%.

Q1) What is the World Bank?

The WB is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low and middle-income/developing countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. It was established along with the IMF at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference. The WB is the collective name for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Development Association (IDA), two of five international organisations owned by the WB Group.

Source: India ranks 113 out of 190 countries in the World Bank’s legal gender gap index