The laws affecting the Indian woman’s pay, pension and property rights are not matching with that of Indian men, bringing India’s score down to 74.4 in a World Bank index on the life cycle of a working woman.
According to the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2023 report, a complete 100 on the index means that women are on an equal standing with men, as per the eight indicators of measure. Out of the 190 economies covered in the index, only 14 scored a perfect 100 - Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Luxemburg, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
The report states that India has a perfect score when it comes to laws affecting women’s decisions to work, constraints related to marriage and freedom of movement. India lags behind when it comes to laws affecting women’s pay, constraints on women running a business, gender differences in property inheritance and pension, and laws affecting women resuming work post childbirth.
One of the lowest scores for India comes from laws affecting women’s pay. The report says, to improve the pay indicator, India may consider mandating equal renumeration for work of equal value, allowing women to work in the night and take up industrial jobs, the same way as men do.