How Far Are We from Achieving Gender Equality Within SDGS Framework

Abstract

Gender equality is a cross-cutting issue across the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This chapter attempts to showcase the progress of SDGs from a gender lens, taking examples from a few select indicators within the SDG framework. The analysis focuses on five indicators, namely access to modern forms of contraception, girls’ completion of secondary education, ministerial or senior government positions held by women, laws on workplace equality, and women’s perceptions of safety. The analysis is based on the SDG Gender Index developed by Equal Measures 2030, which gives a snapshot of where select countries across the world stand based on the availability of recent data and linked to the vision of gender equality. The index shows that across the 129 countries studied, no country has fully achieved the promise of gender equality envisioned in the ambitious 2030 Agenda. Nearly half of the world’s girls and women—1.4 billion—live in countries that get a ‘failing grade’ on gender equality, where the gender gaps are particularly acute. Against this global background, an analysis for India is presented. A trend analysis for the selected indicators is conducted and the time required to reach the SDG target for each indicator is projected at the same rate. The authors calculate how fast India would need to progress to achieve the goal by 2030. Further, the chapter contextualizes related data within the policy and legal environment in India and provides recommendations for improving the scores for gender equality for the selected indicators. There is also an attempt to study the variations within the country across social groups based on age, income, and place of residence (state-wise and rural–urban) keeping in view the guiding principle of the SDGs agenda—‘Leave no one behind’.