Gender Inequality Index

Geography glossary

Also called: GII · Topic: Human Development: Concept, Approaches and Measurement · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

The Gender Inequality Index (GII) is a UNDP index, started in 2010, that measures how much human development a country loses because of inequality between women and men. It runs from 0 (full equality) to 1 (worst inequality), so a higher value is worse.

It matters because the HDI gives a country one average score and does not show how women are doing compared with men. The GII brings out this gender gap, which is one of the main things holding back human development in India.

Explanation

How it works: three dimensions, five indicators

The GII checks the gap between women and men in three dimensions:

Dimension Indicators What it shows
Reproductive health Maternal mortality ratio (MMR), adolescent birth rate Whether women are safe in childbirth and whether girls become mothers too young
Empowerment Share of seats in parliament, population with at least secondary education Whether women have a voice in decisions and access to higher schooling
Labour market Labour-force participation rate (LFPR) Whether women take part in paid work
  • Maternal mortality ratio (MMR): how many mothers die from causes linked to pregnancy and childbirth.
  • Adolescent birth rate: how often teenage girls give birth.
  • Labour-force participation rate (LFPR): the share of people who are working or looking for work.

How to read the score

  • 0 = full equality. Women and men do equally well in all three dimensions.
  • 1 = worst inequality. Women are far behind men.
  • The cause and effect:
  • High maternal deaths, early motherhood, few women in parliament, less schooling for women and few women in paid work all push the GII up.
  • A higher GII means more human development is lost to gender inequality.

Special features to remember

  • It has no income indicator. The GII uses work participation (LFPR), not earnings. This is different from the GDI, which uses income.
  • The reproductive health indicators are about women only. There is no male version of maternal deaths or teenage births. That is why the GII measures women's disadvantage directly and is not simply a female score divided by a male score.
  • The scale runs the opposite way to the GDI. For the GII, 0 is best. For the GDI, 1 is best.

Its place among the companion indices

  • The HDI measures average attainment (what a country achieves on average). It ignores distribution (how those gains are shared).
  • So in 2010 the UNDP added indices that look at distribution:
  • the IHDI, for inequality among all people
  • the MPI, for overlapping poverty
  • the GII, for the gap between women and men

Where it occurs

  • World: the UNDP works out the GII for countries and publishes it in its yearly Human Development Report (HDR). HDR 2025 ranks countries out of 193 [1].
  • India (HDR 2025):
  • India ranked 102nd of 193 on the GII [1].
  • Female labour-force participation (age 15+) was 35.1%, against 76.4% for men [1].

  • Women's low paid work is the main gap. India has improved on health and education inequality, but income and gender gaps are still large [1].

  • Limit inside India: the GII is one national number. It cannot show the gap between states (for example, Kerala and Bihar), between cities and villages, or between social groups.

Don't confuse with

  • Gender Development Index (GDI): the GDI is female HDI ÷ male HDI, where 1 = parity (equality) and it includes income. The GII has 0 = equality and no income indicator.
  • Inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI, 2010): the IHDI lowers the HDI for inequality among all people in health, education and income. India loses 30.7% of its HDI this way [1]. The GII looks only at the gap between women and men.
  • Human Development Index (HDI, 1990): the HDI is an average score from 0 to 1 where higher is better. In the GII, higher is worse.
  • Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI, 2010): the MPI counts poor people who face several problems (deprivations) at the same time. It is built by the UNDP with OPHI. The GII measures gender gaps and is built by the UNDP alone.

Prelims Hooks

  • The GII was started by the UNDP in 2010, the same year as the IHDI and the MPI.
  • GII scale: 0 = full equality, 1 = worst inequality. GDI scale: 1 = parity. This is a common trap: the two run in opposite directions.
  • GII dimensions and indicators:
  • reproductive health: MMR, adolescent birth rate
  • empowerment: parliament seats, secondary education

  • labour market: LFPR

  • Trap: the GII has no income indicator. Income is part of the GDI, not the GII.

  • HDR 2025: India's GII rank is 102 of 193. Its HDI rank is 130 of 193 [1].
  • India's LFPR (age 15+, HDR 2025): women 35.1%, men 76.4% [1].

Mains Points

  • Gender is the weakest link in India's human development (GS-I society).
  • A GII rank of 102, a GDI well below 1 and female LFPR of 35.1% against 76.4% for men show that women's low paid work is the main drag [1].

  • Policy responses: more women in paid work, better maternal health, fewer early marriages, and more women in secondary school and in parliament.

  • One index is not enough to judge human development.

  • The HDI hides distribution. The GII, IHDI and MPI each show a different hidden gap: gender, overall inequality and overlapping poverty.

  • India's 30.7% IHDI loss and its large income and gender gaps mean planning should track women's outcomes on their own [1].

  • National figures hide regional gaps.

  • The GII is a national average. It cannot show gaps between states, between cities and villages, or between social groups.
  • Measuring gender gaps at state and district level, together with state-level MPI targeting, would help aim schemes better.

Related concepts

Read more

Sources

  1. 1India's human development continues to make progress, ranks 130 out of 193 countries (UNDP/UN India, HDR 2025)india.un.org · tier 2