World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law Report 2026

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Context

The World Bank's "Women, Business and the Law 2026" report highlights a significant "implementation gap" between gender equality laws and their real-world enforcement, hindering economic progress.

What are the Key Findings of the Report?

The report introduces a new metric that assesses not just the existence of laws, but the supporting frameworks (like budgets, ombudsmen, and specialized courts) and the actual enforcement on the ground.

The Three-Tier Gap:

• Legal Frameworks (On Paper): The average global score is 67 out of 100.
• Enforcement (In Practice): The score drops drastically to 53 out of 100
• Implementation Systems: Women's rights systems are inadequate (47/100) due to lack of infrastructure like courts, budgets, and police capacity.

Women currently have about two-thirds of men's legal rights, with only 4% of the global female population living in countries with nearly full legal equality.

Safety from Violence is the weakest area; only one-third of necessary laws exist, and they fail in enforcement around 80% of the time.

Sub-Saharan Africa led global legal reforms, with Egypt as the top reforming country.

Why Does the "Implementation Gap" Exist?

Lack of Supportive Infrastructure: Laws mean little without the infrastructure to support them. For example, laws against hiring discrimination are ineffective if women are burdened by unpaid care work.

• Fewer than half of the 190 economies studied offer financial support for parents, with low-income countries having only 1% of necessary childcare support. 
• In India, the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017, mandates creches for companies with over 50 employees. 
• A NITI Aayog survey shows that this mandate, lacking state support, has backfired, with smaller companies avoiding the cost by simply not hiring women.

Financial Exclusion: Women may have the legal right to start a business but lack access to essential credit and capital.

• According to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the finance gap for women-owned MSMEs in developing nations is around $1.7 trillion. 
• Poor enforcement of non-discriminatory lending practices keeps entrepreneurship a distant dream for many.

Deep-Rooted Social Norms: Patriarchal norms often override law. Officials in police, judiciary, and administration, being part of the same society, may lack the will to enforce gender-equal laws.

• The UNDP Gender Social Norms Index (2023) shows that nearly 90% of people globally hold at least one fundamental bias against women, which directly impacts law enforcement.

What is the Economic Cost of this Inequality?

Stifled GDP Growth

The World Bank estimates that closing the gender gap in employment and entrepreneurship could boost global GDP per capita by 20%.

Wasted Demographic Dividend

With 1.2 billion young people entering the workforce in the next decade, failing to empower the female half means underutilizing a massive economic resource.

Asset Ownership Gap

Poor enforcement of inheritance laws, such as Hindu Succession Amendment Act, 2005, hinders women's economic participation by preventing land and asset ownership due to cultural pressures that force them to sign away rights to male relatives.

India has strong laws, but their implementation is weak.

Workplace Safety (POSH Act, 2013)

In the Aureliano Fernandes vs State of Goa (2023) case, the Supreme Court observed that the POSH Act is ineffective because many organizations have failed to constitute the mandatory Internal Complaints Committees (ICCs).

Equal Remuneration 

Despite the law, men in India earn 82% of the labor income while women earn just 18%. (Source: World Inequality Report)

Political Empowerment

Despite the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (2023) ensuring 33% parliamentary reservation for women, the effectiveness of the existing 33% Panchayat-level reservation is often compromised by the "Sarpanch Pati" system, where the elected women's husbands exercise power.

Way Forward for Bridging the Gap

Fund the Implementation: Allocate specific budgets to strengthen enforcement bodies like gender-sensitized police units, labor inspectorates, and public childcare facilities.

Empower Monitoring Bodies: Establish and strengthen ombudsmen or commissions (like India's National Commission for Women) with punitive powers to ensure compliance.

Data-Driven Accountability: Shift focus from simply passing laws to measuring their enforcement and outcomes, using data to hold governments accountable.

Promote Economic Incentives: Offer tax breaks and other benefits to companies that are audited and certified for gender-equal practices, encouraging voluntary compliance.

Adopt Global Best Practices  

• Iceland: Mandates "Equal Pay Certification," shifting the burden of proof to the employer to ensure equal pay for equal work.
• Rwanda: Achieved the world's highest percentage of women in parliament (>60%) through quotas and the deep integration of women into post-genocide reconstruction and state systems.

Conclusion

Achieving true gender equality and the resulting economic prosperity requires legal reforms in India to be fully implemented with political will and financial investment to realize the $5 Trillion economy ambition.

Source: DOWNTOEARTH