Gender equality

India has set an ambitious goal of raising female labour force participation to 55 per cent by 2030, marking a major step toward unlocking the country’s demographic dividend and achieving inclusive economic growth.

The latest nationwide survey reveals a seismic shift in the age profile of Sri Lanka, with the share of children shrinking and the elderly proportion growing – signalling a departure from decades of youthful-growth to one of rapid ageing and dependency pressures.

Muttaqi, a key architect of the Taliban's post-2021 takeover diplomacy, travelled to the southern province of Kandahar on Friday for the audience with Akhundzada.

With just five years left to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a new United Nations report has warned that the world is “alarmingly off-track” on gender equality, placing millions of women and girls at risk of being left behind.

While male participation in the labour market remained largely steady, dipping only slightly from 48.1 million to 48.0 million, female participation plunged more markedly – from 25.3 million in 2023 to 23.7 million in 2024.

The crisis has been compounded by the rise of hardline Islamist groups since the collapse of Sheikh Hasina’s long rule. Women’s rights activists warn that these groups are contributing to an atmosphere of communalism and hostility towards women, exacerbating their vulnerability.

ndia has witnessed a near doubling of its women’s employment rate between 2017-18 and 2023-24 – rising from 22 per cent to 40.3 per cent, according to recent data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey.

The global human rights watchdog said that Afghanistan now faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, exacerbated by donor governments’ aid cuts and the return of 1.9 million refugees expelled from Iran and Pakistan.