Pushing gender equality can deliver a sizeable additional economic growth and could add Rs46 lakh crore ($700 billion) to India's GDP in 2025, a McKinsey report says.
As per the the new report by McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) titled The Power of Parity: Advancing Women's Equality in India', bridging the gender gap will have a huge economic impact and the boost could translate into 1.4 per cent per year incremental GDP growth for India.
“Advancing gender equality can deliver sizeable additional economic growth and broad-based prosperity to the world -- nowhere more so than in India,” the report said, adding that delivering that impact will require tackling significant gender gaps in society and driving a national agenda for change that involves all stakeholders. About 70 per cent of the increase would come from raising India's female labour-force participation rate to 41 per cent in 2025, from 31 per cent at present. This would bring 68 million more women into the economy over this period. “Bridging the gender gap will have a huge economic impact and could add Rs46 lakh crore ($700 billion) to India’s GDP in 2025,” it added. “India's share of women's contribution to GDP is at 17%, much lower than the global average of 37 per cent, in the world analysed by MGI.”