The Women and Men in India, 2021 report, released by MoSPI is the collection of a variety of gender-related statistics that are released by different agencies of the government. This serves as a single go-to platform to find information pertaining to gender statistics. Here is a review of some of the important indicators. One common theme that permeates through every level of Indian society is discrimination on varied grounds. This could be in the form of caste discrimination, gender discrimination, racial discrimination, class discrimination, and so on. This pervasive phenomenon is rampant despite constitutional protection in the form of Article 15 of the Indian Constitution. More than 80% of Indian legal framework has measures that promote and enforce gender equality. However, the goal of gender equality remains distant, with India standing at 140 position out of 156 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index, 2021 published by the World Economic Forum. Indian projected population for 2021 was 136.3 crore, out of which the female population is around 48.6%. When half of the population is female, one cannot afford to keep them out of the country’s development vision. A World Bank report on the economic costs of gender inequality estimated the loss in human capital wealth to be around USD 160.2 trillion globally. Moreover, gender equality is adopted as Goal 5 under the Sustainable Development Goals. On that note, we look at some of the crucial indicators of gender equality using the Women and Men in India, 2021 report by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in today’s story. All the data is sourced from this report, without delving into the individual data sources. About the report The Women and Men in India, 2021 report, released by MoSPI is the collection of a variety of gender-related statistics that are released by different agencies of the government. This serves as a single go-to platform to find information pertaining to gender statistics. The report is divided into six chapters based on diverse aspects of gender – Health, education, participation in economy and decision making, impediments to empowerment, and population-related metrics. Looking at such diverse aspects is crucial to adopt an interdisciplinary approach to minimize gender inequality. It is important to note that this report is only the aggregation of gender statistics and does not provide the underlying reasons for under-performance or over-performance in any indicator. Population related metrics One of the basic metrics that can be used to gauge the extent of parity between individuals of different genders at a given time is the sex ratio. It is defined as the number of females per 1000 males in each population group. This ratio is majorly affected by the birth and death rates, the levels of migration, and so on. It also gives an idea about the relative survival potential of the genders. In India, the sex ratio had gradually fallen from 946 in 1951 to 926 in 1991, except for 934 in 1981. From 1991 onwards, there is a consistent improvement in the sex ratio. It improved from 926 in 1991 to 945 in 2021. The figures for 2021 are projections by the technical group. If we look at the data about the annual exponential growth rate of population for males and females, the growth rate for males increased from 1.24 in 1951 to 2.27 in 1971, after which the growth rate has fallen to 1.07 in 2021. In the case of females, the growth rate rose from 1.26 in 1951 to 2.23 in 1981, with a subsequent decline to 1.10 in 2021. It is not plausible to deduce whether the latest improvements in sex ratio are due to the initiatives of the government promoting gender equality or due to these unequal growth rates. Further, the sex ratio is not uniform across different age groups. In 2011, the sex ratio for the old age group (60+) is way higher at 1033, than the sex ratio of 908 for the 0-19 group. The sex ratio for the economically active age group (15-59) is 944, which is approximately the same as the overall sex ratio. Across the states, only Bihar and Gujarat reported negative performance, while the North-Eastern states reported a significant improvement in the 10 years from 2001 to 2011. Health Statistics: Infant Mortality Rates (IMR): IMR is a critical indicator that provides a glimpse of the health and well-being of the population and the community. It is defined as the ratio of the number of deaths of infants below one year of age to 1000 live births during the same period. In India, the overall IMR has been consistently declining from 53 in 2008 to 30 in 2019. This decline is greater in females than in males.