Numbers that Whisper Change: MoSPI’s Gender Report 2024 🧮

🧭 Thematic Focus

Category: Gender Equality | Economic Development | Governance & Data
GS Paper: GS Paper II – Welfare Schemes & Gender Issues | GS Paper III – Inclusive Growth
Tagline: When data begins to breathe, we hear the soft steps of empowerment.

📊 Intro

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has released the 26th edition of Women and Men in India 2024 – Selected Indicators and Data.
This extensive compendium of gender-based indicators is more than a statistical release—it is a mirror of transformation, capturing both the promises fulfilled and the distances yet to walk.

🔍 Key Highlights

• Financial Inclusion:
  • Women own 39.2% of bank accounts (rural: 42.2%)
  • Contribute 39.7% of total deposits
  • Suggests growing financial autonomy for Indian women
• Stock Market Participation:
  • DEMAT accounts rose from 33.26 million (2021) to 143.02 million (2024)
  • Female DEMAT accounts grew 4x: from 6.67 million to 27.71 million
• Female Entrepreneurship:
  • Surge in female-led proprietary units in manufacturing and services
  • Startups with at least one woman director:
    • From 1,943 (2017) → 17,405 (2024)
  • Indicates robust entrepreneurial ecosystem for women
• Political Participation:
  • Voters grew from 173 million (1952) to 978 million (2024)
  • Female turnout (2024): 65.8%, slightly down from 67.2% (2019)
  • Yet, women outvoted men—a historic gender shift
• Education: Gender Parity Index (GPI):
  • High parity in primary and higher secondary levels
  • Some fluctuation in upper primary and elementary levels
  • Reflects consistent female enrolment growth
• Labour Force Participation (15+ years):
  • LFPR rose from 49.8% (2017-18) to 60.1% (2023-24)
  • Indicates increased economic participation of women

🧠 Concept Explainer: Why This Matters

Behind every statistic lies a silent decision: a girl opening her first bank account, a mother voting boldly, a student logging into her stock app.
Data like this becomes meaningful only when it informs, transforms, and uplifts.
It helps create targeted policies and gender-sensitive governance, and most importantly, it honours the progress made without denying what remains undone.

🗺️ GS Paper Mapping

• GS Paper II – Gender Issues, Role of Women in Development, Voter Behavior
• GS Paper III – Labour Reforms, Financial Inclusion, Start-up Growth
• Essay Themes – “Measuring Empowerment in Numbers,” “Women as Agents of Change”

💭 A Thought Spark — by IAS Monk

“In every rising percentage,
there is a story of someone who stepped forward—
not to be counted,
but to count in the making of a new nation.”