In News:

The World Bank has set a clear mission: ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity on a livable planet. This new edition of the biennial series, previously titled Poverty and Shared Prosperity, assesses the three components of the mission and emphasizes that reducing poverty and increasing shared prosperity must be achieved without high costs to the environment.

Extreme Poverty in India:

• Current Poverty Status (2024):
  • 129 million Indians are living in extreme poverty, defined as earning less than $2.15 (?181) per day.
  • This marks a significant improvement from 431 million in 1990, demonstrating progress in poverty alleviation.
• Poverty Trends:
  • In 2021, there was a reduction of 38 million people in extreme poverty, bringing the total to 167.49 million.
  • However, higher poverty standards (set at $6.85 (?576) per day) now show more Indians below the poverty line than in 1990, mainly due to population growth.
• Survey Methodology:
  • The 2022-23 Household Consumption and Expenditure Survey (HCES) in India used the Modified Mixed Reference Period (MMRP) method to improve data accuracy.
  • The report suggests the need for careful analysis of the survey data, which may impact future poverty estimates.

Global Poverty Trends:

• Slowdown in Poverty Reduction:
  • Global poverty reduction has slowed considerably, with 700 million people (8.5% of the global population) living in extreme poverty in 2024.
  • The slowdown is attributed to factors like low economic growth, the COVID-19 pandemic, and increased fragility.
• Challenges in Achieving Targets:
  • The global extreme poverty rate is expected to be 7.3% in 2030, which is double the World Bank's target of 3%.
  • At current rates, extreme poverty eradication by 2030 is unlikely. It could take decades to eradicate extreme poverty, and over a century to lift people above the $6.85/day threshold.
• Impact of Polycrisis:
  • Polycrisis refers to the confluence of multiple crises—slow growth, climate risks, and increased uncertainty—making global poverty reduction more challenging.
  • Global prosperity has also been impacted, with slower income growth, particularly after the pandemic.

India's Role in Global Poverty Reduction:

• Contribution to Global Poverty:
  • India’s contribution to global extreme poverty is expected to decline significantly over the next decade. However, even if India eradicates its extreme poverty by 2030, the global extreme poverty rate would only fall from 7.31% to 6.72%, still above the UN SDG target of 3%.

Proposed Pathways for Addressing Poverty:

• Faster and Inclusive Growth:
  • Focus on increasing labor productivity, income, and employment to boost economic growth inclusively.
• Climate Resilience:
  • Strengthen risk management and mitigation efforts to protect vulnerable populations from climate shocks, ensuring that growth does not worsen environmental degradation.

Global Priorities:

• Low-Income Countries: Prioritize poverty reduction through investments in human, physical, and financial capital to foster growth.
• Middle-Income Countries: Focus on inclusive income growth that reduces vulnerability, and seek synergies such as cutting air pollution alongside poverty reduction.
• High-Income Countries: Accelerate climate mitigation efforts while managing the transition costs involved.

Why is it in the News?

India's ranked improved to 113 out of 190 countries in the World Bank’s Women, Business and Law index, according to the 10th edition of the report released Monday.

About Women, Business and Law Index:

• The "Women, Business and the Law (WBL)" index is a project of the World Bank Group, specifically designed to measure the legal environment for women's economic opportunities across 190 economies.
• It's distinct from a general "Gender Equality Index" as it focuses specifically on legal frameworks and their impact on women's involvement in business and professional life.

What does it Measure?

• The WBL index assesses legal frameworks across eight indicators:
  • Mobility (freedom of movement)
  • Workplace (discrimination, maternity leave, etc.)
  • Pay (equal pay for equal work)
  • Marriage (property rights, domestic violence)
  • Parenthood (parental leave, child custody)
  • Entrepreneurship (starting and running a business)
  • Assets (ownership and inheritance)
  • Pension (access to and benefits)
• Scoring: Each indicator is scored on a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 representing the highest level of legal rights and protections for women.
  • The overall score for a country is the average of these eight indicators.
• Latest version: The latest edition is "Women, Business and the Law 2024", released in October 2023.
• This version also introduces two new indicators:
  • Safety (addressing violence against women)
  • Childcare (availability, affordability, and quality)

Highlights of the Report:

• Women spend an average of 2.4 more hours a day on unpaid care work than men—much of it on the care of children.
• Only 62 economies—fewer than a third—have quality standards governing childcare services, which has an adverse impact on the employment opportunity of women as mothers with young children have their battles to pick.
• Women face hindrances in areas such as entrepreneurship as just one in every five economies mandate gender-sensitive criteria for public procurement processes, meaning women are deprived of significant economic opportunities.

About India:

• According to the 10th edition of the Women, Business and Law index, India ranks 113 out of 190 countries in the Index.
  • The addition of Safety and childcare as indicators in the new index is believed to have improved India’s ranking slightly.
• The index shows that in India, women enjoy 60% of the legal rights compared to men, which is lower than the global average of 64.2%, but much higher than the 45.9% of the legal protections compared to men.
• Over the years, India’s score has remained constant at 74.4%, whereas a total of 14 countries around the world, including Denmark, Canada, and Finland, score a perfect 100 in the legal framework score.
  • Some of the less developed countries like Ethiopia, Namibia, and even Burundi have better scores than India.
• India’s performance is much lower in providing supportive frameworks, such as programs, services, budgets, procedures, inspections, and sanctions for non-compliance with quality standards.
  • Only 54.2% of the supportive frameworks needed were established in the country.