Q. The Government of Uttar Pradesh’s Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Index is a model that can be replicated across India. Discuss.

 

Q. The Government of Uttar Pradesh’s Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Index is a model that can be replicated across India. Discuss.

Answer:

Women contribute only 18% to India’s GDP, and nearly 196 million employable women remain outside the workforce. Without integrating women into the economy, India’s aspiration of becoming a $30 trillion economy by 2047 cannot be realised.

To address this gap, Uttar Pradesh launched India’s first Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Index, a district-level tool tracking women’s participation across five areas: employment; education and skilling; entrepreneurship; livelihood and mobility; and safety and inclusive infrastructure.

The significance of the Index lies in its ability to make inequities visible. For instance, UP’s transport sector data showed negligible women bus drivers and inadequate facilities, leading to recruitment redesign and infrastructure improvements. Similarly, while women dominate skilling enrolments, they remain underrepresented as entrepreneurs, revealing systemic barriers to credit access. Such insights move the debate from participation rates to structural challenges.

For effective replication across States, three shifts are crucial:

1. Gender-disaggregated data must be integrated into all departmental systems (MSME, transport, housing, education).

2. True gender budgeting, where every rupee spent is viewed through a gender lens, beyond welfare schemes.

3. Capacity building of local governments to prepare district-level gender action plans.

States like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Telangana, which have trillion-dollar economic ambitions, must adopt such frameworks to leverage their gender dividend.

In conclusion, the WEE Index is not an end but a starting point. By embedding a gender lens into governance and budgeting, India can move women from the margins to the mainstream of economic growth.