India slips 28 places; ranks 140 of 156 in Global Gender Gap Report 2021

Gender: India ranks 140 of 156 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021. The country has fallen 28 places, making it one of the worst performers in South Asia, behind Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. South Asia, in itself, is one of the worst-performing regions, followed only by the Middle East and northern Africa.

“On its current trajectory, it will now take 135.6 years to close the gender gap worldwide,” according to the report. While Western Europe will take 52.1 years, South Asia will need 195.4 years to close the gender gap.

The gender gap in the political sphere remains the largest: Women occupy only 26.1 percent of the 35,500 parliament seats, and are just 22.6 percent of the 3,400 ministers globally. In 81 countries, there has never been a woman head of state, as of January 15, 2021.

India has declined on the political empowerment index as well, by 13.5 percent. The number of women ministers have also declined sharply from 23.1 percent in 2019 to 9.1 percent in 2021. However, it has still performed relatively well compared to other countries, ranking at 51 in women’s participation in politics. Bangladesh is “the only country where more women have held head-of-state positions than men in the past 50 years,” says the report.

When it comes to education attainment, India’s rank stands at 114. The two indices where India fared the worst however are the health and survival subindex, with rank of 155 (a spot ahead of China), and the economic participation of women. With respect to the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, India is among the bottom 10 globally because the estimated earned income of women in India is only one-fifth that of men in the country.

Read this article on why the percentage of working women in India has almost halved over the last decade.

Fundraising & Communications: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued a circular extending the validity of FCRA registration certificates to September 30th, 2021. This applies to all FCRA licences that have expired or will expire between September 29th, 2020 and May 31st, 2021. The decision to extend the deadline has been driven by the exigencies arising from the COVID-19 situation.

FCRA refers to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act 2010, which permits charitable organisations based in India to raise funds from foreign sources.

The order also clarified that nonprofits that have already opened an account and have the requisite permission to receive foreign aid, can henceforth receive it only in these newly-opened accounts.

The FCRA law was amended in September 2020 to include a clause that mandated that all nonprofits receiving foreign aid must necessarily open an account in State Bank of India’s New Delhi Main Branch. The government had initially set the deadline for this account opening as March 31st, 2021; it later extended it to June 30th, 2021 after several nonprofits argued in court that there had been delays because necessary approvals from MHA had not been received.

Several organisations have not been able to receive foreign funds during the crisis caused by the second wave, and this has impacted their COVID-19 relief efforts. Relaxing the foreign funding rules could significantly help organisations ramp up their operations to help individuals, supply critical healthcare equipment, and respond to communities in rural areas.

Read this article to know how amending the FCRA can have unforeseen implications.

Philanthropy & CSR: The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has issued a circular that allows corporate spending on health infrastructure for COVID-19 care to qualify as corporate social responsibility (CSR) expenditure.

This includes setting up medical oxygen generation and storage plants, manufacturing and supply of oxygen concentrators, ventilators, cylinders, and other medical equipment to counter COVID-19.  

The announcement comes at a time when all efforts are being directed towards expediting efforts to support the country’s healthcare infrastructure.

According to the circular, companies can now undertake projects and activities in collaboration with other companies using CSR funds. Additionally, they can contribute to specified research and development projects, as well as publicly funded universities and certain organisations that conduct research in science, technology, engineering, and medicine.

The government had earlier clarified that setting up makeshift hospitals and temporary COVID-19 care facilities would also be considered a CSR activity. Rajesh Verma, the Corporate Affairs Secretary, has requested businesses to consider converting vacant office buildings into COVID-19 facilities to cater to the rapidly increasing caseload.

Read this article to understand why media attention on COVID-19 deaths due to lack of oxygen in big cities has skewed donor priorities.