{"id":54576,"date":"2025-09-19T21:17:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T15:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=54576"},"modified":"2025-09-20T13:37:28","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T08:07:28","slug":"closing-gender-gaps-holds-ending-poverty-key","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/19-09-2025\/closing-gender-gaps-holds-ending-poverty-key","title":{"rendered":"Closing Gender Gaps Holds the Key to Ending Poverty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS1\/ Society, GS2\/ Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <strong>UN Gender Snapshot 2025<\/strong>, released by <strong>UN Women and UN DESA,<\/strong> highlights that without urgent action more than<strong> 351 million women and girls<\/strong> could remain in extreme poverty by 2030.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Key Findings<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Persistent Poverty: <\/strong>Female poverty has remained stuck at <strong>10% since 2020<\/strong>. Climate change and conflict are worsening vulnerabilities.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Work and Representation:<\/strong> Women spend <strong>2.5 times more hours<\/strong> on unpaid domestic and care work than men. They hold <strong>less than one-third<\/strong> of parliamentary seats worldwide.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>102 countries have never had a woman head of state or government.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Digital Divide: <\/strong>In 2024, <strong>70%<\/strong> of men used the internet compared to<strong> 65%<\/strong> of women.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Closing this gap could lift <strong>30 million<\/strong> women from poverty, benefit <strong>343 million<\/strong> women and girls, and add<strong> $1.5 trillion<\/strong> to global GDP by <strong>2030.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Food Insecurity and Violence:<\/strong><strong>64 million<\/strong> more women than men were food insecure in 2024.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>1 in 8 women between <strong>15\u201349 years<\/strong> faced intimate partner violence in the past year.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>18.6% <\/strong>of young women were married before <strong>18 <\/strong>(down from 22% in 2014).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In 2024, <strong>676 million<\/strong> women and girls lived within 50 km of deadly conflict, the highest since the 1990s.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Climate Change: <\/strong>Worst-case climate change scenarios could push <strong>158 million <\/strong>more women into poverty by 2050.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ebecf0\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>India-Specific Dimensions<\/strong><br>&#8211; <strong>Female Labour Force Participation Rate (FLFPR):<\/strong> Around 37% in 2023 (ILO), among the lowest in South Asia.<br>&#8211; <strong>Political Representation:<\/strong> Women hold about <strong>15% seats<\/strong> in Lok Sabha, though the Women\u2019s Reservation Act 2023 promises 33%.<br>&#8211; <strong>Education:<\/strong> Gender parity achieved in school enrolment, but dropout rates for girls rise at secondary levels due to early marriage, safety, and social norms.<br>&#8211; <strong>Digital Divide: <\/strong>As per NFHS-5, only 33% of women use the internet, compared to 57% of men.Violence against women remains widespread; NCRB 2022 data shows over 4 lakh cases of crimes against women.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Global Efforts for Gender Equality<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5: <\/strong>Aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action <\/strong>is a landmark UN resolution adopted in <strong>1995<\/strong> at the Fourth World Conference on Women, which provides a comprehensive global blueprint for achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW):<\/strong> Encourages policy reforms and legal protection against gender discrimination.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>India&#8217;s Initiative Towards Gender Equality<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Poshan Abhiyaan: <\/strong>This mission aims to improve nutrition outcomes for children, pregnant women, and lactating mothers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Digital Literacy Programme for Women: <\/strong>It is part of Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) and <strong>empowers women to access e-governance services and financial platforms<\/strong>, helping them participate in the digital economy<strong>.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>One Stop Centre Scheme (Sakhi Centres),<\/strong> aims to facilitate women affected by violence with a range of integrated services under one roof such as Police facilitation, medical aid, legal aid and legal counseling, psycho-social counseling, temporary shelter, etc.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The Women in Science and Engineering-KIRAN (WISE KIRAN) program <\/strong>has supported nearly 1,962 women scientists from 2018 to 2023.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017:<\/strong> Provides for <strong>26 weeks<\/strong> of paid maternity leave for women working in the private sector and government.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, <\/strong>seeks to <strong>reserve one-third of the total number of seats <\/strong>for women in Lok Sabha, State Legislative Assemblies and Delhi Assembly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>UN Women<\/strong><br>&#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unwomen.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>UN Women<\/strong><\/a> is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women.\u00a0<br>&#8211; A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was <strong>established in 2010<\/strong> to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide.<br>&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?rlz=1C1ONGR_enIN1020IN1020&amp;q=un+women+headquarters&amp;stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAOPgE-LSz9U3SElJTivO0tLKTrbSzy9KT8zLrEosyczPQ-FYZaQmphSWJhaVpBYVL2IVLc1TKM_PTc1TQBYHAK9WKZ1SAAAA&amp;sa=X&amp;sqi=2&amp;ved=2ahUKEwj9-5WIn52AAxX-SGwGHQi5CnEQ6BMoAHoECFYQAg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Headquarters<\/strong><\/a><strong>: <\/strong>New York.<br><strong>UN DESA<\/strong><br>&#8211; UNDESA, or the <strong>United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs,<\/strong> is a United Nations body that supports the UN&#8217;s development efforts, focusing on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the <strong>17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).\u00a0<\/strong><br>&#8211; It serves as a vital link between global development policies and national actions by providing analysis, data, and capacity-building, especially for developing countries.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.downtoearth.org.in\/governance\/closing-gender-gaps-could-lift-millions-from-poverty-uns-latest-gender-snapshot-report-warns#:~:text=Governance-,Closing\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>DTE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The UN Gender Snapshot 2025, released by UN Women and UN DESA, highlights that without urgent action more than 351 million women and girls could remain in extreme poverty by 2030.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Key Findings<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Persistent Poverty: Female poverty has remained stuck at 10% since 2020. Climate change and conflict are worsening vulnerabilities.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Work and Representation: Women spend 2.5 times more hours on unpaid domestic and care work than men. They hold less than one-third of parliamentary seats worldwide.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">102 countries have never had a woman head of state or government.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Digital Divide: In 2024, 70% of men used the internet compared to 65% of women.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/19-09-2025\/closing-gender-gaps-holds-ending-poverty-key\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54576"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54629,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54576\/revisions\/54629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}