Vineeta Pandey/DNA
 
New Delhi, Nov 14: India on Wednesday got a rap for its gender gap in the form of two reports, by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The WEF ranked India a poor 113th among a list of 130 countries in its Global Gender Gap Report 2008 while the UNFPA’s State of World Population 2008 report said India needed culturally sensitive approaches to eliminate gender inequality.

Obviously, all government efforts to bring women to the forefront, by reserving seats in parliament or through gender-friendly policies, are not helping.

The WEF report found that India was among the 20 countries where the gender gap
was the widest. India ranked sixth in economic inequality between men and women, 25th in political empowerment, 116th in educational attainment and 128th in health and survival. The WEF had ranked India 114th last year and the climb to 113th was mainly due to more participation of women in politics.

Norway topped the survey which took into account economic participation and opportunity, education attainment, political empowerment, health and survival. Others in the top 10 are Finland, Sweden, Iceland, New Zealand, Philippines, Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands and Latvia. China was ranked 57th.

Economic participation and opportunity referred to outcomes on salaries, participation levels and access to high-skilled employment while educational attainment focused on access to basic and higher-level education. Political empowerment was measured as representation in decision-making structures whereas health and survival were based on outcomes on life expectancy and sex ratio.

The UNFPA report said gender-related problems in India had a lot to do with the country’s culture. For instance, women, out of shame, fear or cultural practice, do not report problems even as they survive pregnancy and childbirth with serious
consequences like obstetric fistula, anaemia, infertility, damaged pelvic structure, chronic infection, depression and impaired productivity.

Worse still, most Indians believe that men contribute a fully formed foetus, the quality of the woman’s womb and menstrual blood determines how the foetus develops and in some areas infertility is a women’s inability to produce sons. Women are widely discriminated and under pressure from family and society to produce sons.

However, a change in perception is taking place after NGOs engaged the media, built networks and provided training and support to local groups to end sex selection. “This comprehensive approach has begun to change perceptions and attitudes. While the practice has not been entirely eradicated, there has been notable progress,” the report said.