MAINS Current Affairs includes Gender Wealth Inequality: Missing Dimension of Economic Equality & India’s Tourism Sector: Unlocking A New Milestone

INCLUSIVE GROWTH

1. Gender Wealth Inequality: Missing Dimension of Economic Equality

Context: Recent global reports, including the World Inequality Report 2026 and the United Nations report Counting What Counts, have highlighted persistent gender disparities in labour markets. However, both reports largely focus on employment, wages and labour force participation, while giving comparatively little attention to gender inequality in ownership of wealth and productive assets.

The debate underscores that true economic empowerment is not merely about earning an income but also about owning assets that generate long-term security, bargaining power and intergenerational prosperity.

What is Gender Wealth Inequality?

Gender Wealth Inequality refers to the unequal ownership, control and accumulation of productive assets and wealth between men and women.

Unlike income inequality, which measures differences in earnings, wealth inequality focuses on ownership of assets such as:

• Agricultural land;
• Residential property;
• Livestock;
• Businesses;
• Financial assets;
• Machinery and equipment;
• Digital assets; and
• Pension wealth.

Women may participate equally in the workforce, yet remain economically disadvantaged if they lack ownership of these assets.

Thus, employment without ownership leads to incomplete economic empowerment.

Findings of Major Global Reports

World Inequality Report 2026

The World Inequality Report 2026 highlights widening inequalities in income and household wealth across countries.

The report primarily measures gender inequality using indicators such as:

• Female-to-male hourly earnings;
• Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR);
• Wage gaps; and
• Employment opportunities.

It attributes lower female employment mainly to:

• Inadequate childcare facilities;
• Lack of affordable and safe transportation;
• Hiring discrimination; and
• Limited parental leave policies.

Although the report recognises wealth inequality as a major driver of overall inequality, it pays limited attention to individual ownership of productive assets by women.

UN Report: Counting What Counts

The United Nations report advocates measuring development beyond GDP by incorporating broader well-being indicators.

It recognises:

• Unpaid care work;
• Labour market inequalities; and
• Gender disparities in employment.

However, like the World Inequality Report, it gives relatively little emphasis to women’s ownership of land, housing, enterprises and other productive assets.

Why is Ownership of Wealth Important?

• Economic empowerment is more than jobs, it’s about asset ownership that offers long term economic security and leverage.
• Improves the well-being of women and children:Several studies provide evidence that women’s ownership of land or housing:
  • Improved nutrition, education and health outcomes for children.
  • Women’s bargaining power in the household is enhanced.
  • The risks of domestic violence and poverty are substantially reduced after divorce.
• Improves Productivity and Economic Growth: The FAO reports that enabling women to have equal access to productive resources such as farmland, irrigation, credit and farm machinery can greatly improve agricultural productivity and national economic growth.
• Livelihoods in the Informal Economy: Key to Especially in developing countries like India.
  • The majority of women are in the informal sector and in agriculture.
• Wages are more a function of productive assets you own than income is.
• Land, livestock, shops, carts, machinery and digital resources are the stuff of sustainable livelihoods.

India’s Scenario

• The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2023–24reveals the structural nature of women’s employment:
  • 86% of all women workers are in the informal sector.
  • In rural areas, about 91% of women are in the informal sector.
• Nearly 77%of rural women workers are engaged in agriculture.
• About 73%of rural women workers are self-employed, mostly as unpaid family workers.
• However,
  • Data from NFHS, IHDSand ICRISAT indicate that women own agricultural land in only 12–16% of rural landowning households.
  • Despite being de facto cultivators due to male migration, women often lack legal ownership of land.
  • Limited ownership means they are excluded from institutional credit, crop insurance, agricultural subsidies and formal markets.
  • Thus, employment without ownership is half economic empowerment.

Related Issues and Concerns

• Shortcomings of Current Gender Indicators:The present international indices are mainly based on labour force participation, wage gaps, hourly earnings and unpaid domestic work.
  • These indicators do not account for asset ownership, inheritance and wealth accumulation, resulting in an incomplete assessment of women’s economic situation.
• Missing Dimension (Gender Wealth Inequality):Wealth inequality is qualitatively different from income inequality because wealth produces future income, provides economic security, improves decision making power and is transferred across generations.
  • The World Inequality Labitself has shown that inheritance is a major contributor to wealth inequality, yet gendered inheritance remains inadequately measured.
• Data Constraints: Although comprehensive gender-wise wealth databases are limited:
  • FAO and World Bank maintain datasets on women’s land ownership.
  • Many developed countries collect gender-disaggregated pension wealth data.
  • India has land records, NFHS and agricultural surveys that can be better integrated.
  • Therefore, the challenge is not complete absence of data but insufficient collection and utilisation of gender-disaggregated wealth statistics.

Related Efforts & Initiatives in India

• Several policy initiatives seek to strengthen women’s economic agency:
  • Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005granting daughters equal coparcenary rights.
  • SVAMITVA Schemeprovides ownership data for rural property.
  • PM Awas Yojana (Gramin & Urban)– to promote property registration in women’s names or joint ownership.
  • Women-led Self Help Groupspromoted under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana–National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM).
  • Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP)for identification and empowerment of women farmers.
  • Digital IndiaLand Records Modernisation Programme (DILRMP) for transparency in Land Records
  • Financial inclusion through Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)and Stand-Up India, access to better banking and entrepreneurship.

Measures to Strengthen Labour Market Participation & Women’s Empowerment

• Build gender-disaggregated databases on wealth, including land, housing, enterprises, financial assets and pensions.
• Enforce laws that already exist and ensure joint land titles, equal inheritance rights.
• Strengthen asset ownership to increase women’s access to credit, insurance, agricultural inputs and markets.
• Need for labour market reforms by investing in childcare, safe transport, maternity benefits and flexible work arrangements.
• Include gender wealth indicators in national and international indices of inequality in addition to wage-based measures.
• Enhance legal literacy and digitalised land records to enable women to assert ownership rights effectively.

Way Forward

• Labour market participation remains an important indicator of women’s empowerment, but it alone cannot capture the true extent of economic inequality.
• In countries such as India, where a large proportion of women are self-employed or engaged in agriculture, ownership of productive assets is as important as employment itself.
• Future policies and inequality assessments should therefore move beyond wages and employment to include wealth, property ownership, inheritance, enterprise ownership and access to productive assets.
• Creating a gender-equitable economy requires ensuring that women are not only workers but also owners, entrepreneurs, decision-makers and wealth creators.

Conclusion

Gender wealth inequality remains one of the least measured yet most significant dimensions of economic inequality. While employment provides income, ownership of land, property, enterprises and productive assets creates long-term economic security, bargaining power and intergenerational prosperity.

For India, where the majority of women work in agriculture and the informal economy, bridging the gender wealth gap is essential for achieving inclusive growth, women’s economic empowerment and sustainable development. Recognising wealth ownership as a core dimension of gender equality will strengthen policy effectiveness and accelerate progress towards SDG 5 and the vision of Viksit Bharat@2047.

ECONOMY

2. India’s Tourism Sector: Unlocking A New Milestone

Context: India’s tourism and hospitality sector has emerged as one of the fastest-growing segments of the economy following a strong post-pandemic recovery. Increased domestic travel, rising foreign tourist arrivals, growing private investments, and supportive government initiatives have positioned tourism as a key pillar of economic growth, employment generation, infrastructure development and India’s global soft power.

The Government’s vision of making India a global tourism powerhouse, along with policy recommendations from the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH), aims to unlock the sector’s enormous economic potential.

Tourism Sector in India: Present Status

• Tourism is one of the largest service industries in India and plays a significant role in promoting economic development, employment, regional balance and cultural preservation.
• It is considered a multiplier sector, as every direct job created in tourism generates several indirect jobs in transportation, handicrafts, hospitality, food processing, retail, entertainment and local services.
• Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the sector has entered a phase of sustained expansion driven by rising domestic tourism, business travel and international arrivals.

Key Statistics

• Contributes approximately 7% of India’s GDP.
• Generates more than 9% of total employment (direct and indirect).
• Expected to contribute 10% of GDP by 2030.
• Projected to contribute US$523.6 billion to GDP by 2034.
• Domestic tourist visits expected to increase from 5 billion (2024) to 5.2 billion by 2030.
• India has received nearly US$18.47 billion FDI in the tourism sector (April 2000–December 2024).
• Generated around US$30.5 billion in foreign exchange earnings.
• India aims to attract 25 million foreign tourist arrivals by 2030.

These figures highlight tourism as one of the most promising sectors for India’s long-term economic growth.

Why Is Tourism Important to the Economy of India?

• Strong Industry Performance:Hotel occupancy in key markets has maintained very high levels.
  • Average room rates (ARRs) have exceeded pre-pandemic levels.
  • Leisure, business travel, MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions)and religious tourism continue to drive demand.
• Increasing Investments:Increased participation from institutional investors, public hotel companies, developers and family offices.
  • Investment is growing but institutional participation is still below that in mature global hospitality markets, suggesting there is room to grow.
• Emerging Tourism Geography:A defining trend is the diffusion of tourism outside of metropolitan cities.
  • Tier-II and Tier-III citiesare emerging as important tourism and hospitality destinations.
  • New tourism circuits being developed by regional airports under UDAN scheme, better highways and industrial corridors.
  • Hotels are being driven by airport-centric development for business travellers, transit passengers and convention tourism.

Other Significance of Tourism Industry

• Important Driver of Economic Growth: Tourism makes a significant contribution to GDP and fuels a number of sectors such as transport, aviation, retail, handcrafts, food processing and construction.
• Employment Generation:Tourism is labour intensive. For every direct job created in hotels, travel agencies or transport, many indirect jobs are created in local economies.
• Regional and Inclusive Development:Tourism generates income opportunities in rural, tribal, coastal and hilly areas where industrialisation is not much.
• Infrastructure Development:Investments in airport, roads, railways, convention centres and digital infrastructure improve connectivity and spur regional development.
• Foreign Exchange Earnings:Inbound tourism generates valuable foreign exchange earnings, which help to strengthen India’s external sector.
• Promotion of India’s Soft Power:Tourism is a reflection of India’s civilisational heritage, yoga, Ayurveda, spirituality, cuisine and cultural diversity and thus contributes to building India’s image abroad.

Related Issues and Concerns

• Lack of Industry Status:Tourism is not universally recognised as an industry by states, which prevents access to cheap finance and institutional credit.
• Infrastructure Gaps:Many destinations still suffer from poor last mile connectivity, sanitation, accommodation, digital infrastructure and visitor facilities.
• Policy Fragmentation:The lack of coordination between the ministries and state governments hinders the integrated development of tourism.
• High Taxation and Compliance Burden:High taxes and complex approval processes reduce India’s competitiveness against global tourism destinations.
• Limited Global Branding: India does not have a sustained international tourism promotion campaign like leading tourism economies.
• Visa and Travel Ease:e-Visa facilities have been extended, but further simplification of entry procedures and expansion to more countries could significantly boost inbound tourism.
• Sustainability Challenges:Responsible tourism practices to combat over-tourism in popular destinations, environmental degradation and climate change vulnerabilities.

Tourism Related Efforts and Initiatives

• Swadesh Darshan Scheme:Development of integrated theme based tourist circuits with improved infrastructure.
• PRASHAD Scheme: Concentrates on revival of pilgrimage and spiritual tourism places.
• Dekho Apna Desh Campaign: Promotes domestic tourism by motivating citizens to explore India’s diverse destinations.
• UDAN (Regional Connectivity Scheme): Enhances regional air connectivity and unlocks new destinations.
• e-Visa Facility: Facilitates travel of foreign tourists, ease of entry.
• Digital Tourism Initiatives:The Ministry of Tourism has enhanced tourism data systems and digital platforms to promote destinations and plan policies.
• National Integrated Database of Hospitality Industry (NIDHI+):The objective is to empower, digitise and facilitate hospitality and tourism sectors.
  • It is a common national registry for different parties like accommodation establishments, travel agents, tour operators, independent restaurants to make doing business easier and to provide government services electronically.

Way Ahead: Strengthening the Tourism Sector of India

• The Union Budget 2026-27has taken a comprehensive strategy to strengthen tourism infrastructure, improve skills development and take advantage of digital platforms. They include:
  • Experience tourism and development of destinations;
  • Regional and Niche Tourism Promotion;
• Recommendations for FAITH: The Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH) has suggested:
  • Recognition of tourism as an industry in all States.
  • Mission-mode development of 50 tourism destinations.
  • Launching a well-funded Brand Bharatglobal tourism campaign.
  • Liberalising visa policies.
  • Rationalising taxation.
  • Establishing a single-window clearance mechanism for tourism projects.
• India needs to adopt an integrated and long-term strategy to realise the estimated $3-trillion travel and tourism opportunity.
• There is a need to:
  • Integrate tourism planning with infrastructure development, urban planning and regional economic corridors.
  • Create world-class tourism infrastructure, including last-mile connectivity, digital services and visitor amenities.
  • Promote greater private sector investment with industry status, easier financing and regulatory reforms.
  • Promote sustainable and community tourism, to reach balanced development of regions.
  • Develop destination management through skills development, safety standards and digital governance.
  • Make a Brand Bharat campaign to be known globally, showcasing India’s heritage, wellness, eco-tourism and cultural diversity.
  • Wider e-visa coverage, seamless multimodal transport and simplified procedures make travel easier.

Conclusion

Tourism is not merely a service sector but a powerful engine of economic growth, employment generation, infrastructure development, foreign exchange earnings and cultural diplomacy. With its rich civilisational heritage, diverse landscapes and expanding infrastructure, India possesses enormous untapped tourism potential.

By strengthening connectivity, improving infrastructure, promoting sustainable tourism, enhancing global branding and encouraging greater private investment, India can emerge as one of the world’s leading tourism destinations. A vibrant tourism sector will play a crucial role in achieving inclusive growth, regional development and the vision of Viksit Bharat@2047.

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