The State of Indian Government Website Compliance

Original study · 2026-06-19 · WebX Auditor

Key findings

Across 74 live Indian government websites audited for accessibility, security, SEO and GIGW compliance, the average score was 63/100 (median 62.1). 84% scored below 70, with an average of 112 failed checks per site. Security was the most common weak area (58% of sites). Notably, several major national portals (india.gov.in, data.gov.in, nic.in, pmindia.gov.in) blocked automated scanners outright.

63avg score /100

84%below 70

112avg issues/site

74sites audited

Score distribution

90–1000 sites

70–8912 sites

50–6962 sites

30–490 sites

0–290 sites

Most common weak areas

Share of audited sites where each pillar was flagged as a top area needing work.

Security58%

SEO26%

Quality5%

Accessibility1%

What this means

Indian government websites are legally required to meet GIGW 3.0 (which incorporates WCAG 2.1 AA). Yet the typical audited site fell well short — and weaknesses clustered in security headers and SEO/discoverability rather than accessibility alone. The tight score band (52–72) is consistent with many sites sharing common CMS/NIC templates, so a fix to a shared template could lift many sites at once.

Methodology

Sample: 74 live .gov.in sites with clean results, from 109 scanned of 413 discovered. The crawl is ongoing (283 sites pending), so this is a representative snapshot, not the full population.
Method: automated multi-pillar audit (WCAG 2.1/2.2, GIGW 3.0, SEO, security baseline) on the homepage of each site.
Excluded: 12 sites that returned WAF/anti-bot block pages (e.g. india.gov.in, data.gov.in, nic.in) — their scores would reflect a block screen, not the real site.
Limitation: an automated audit catches a large share of machine-detectable issues but is not a formal certification; some criteria require manual review.

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FAQ

How many government websites were audited?

74 live .gov.in websites with clean results, drawn from 109 scanned (out of 413 discovered). Pages that returned WAF block screens were excluded.

What was the average compliance score?

63/100 (median 62.1), with 84% of sites scoring below 70 and an average of 112 failed checks per site.

What standard was used?

An automated multi-pillar audit covering WCAG 2.1/2.2, GIGW 3.0, SEO and security baselines. This is an automated pre-audit, not a formal certification — some criteria require manual review.

Which areas were weakest?

Security was flagged as a top-weakness area in 58% of sites, followed by SEO (26%).