It may still happen. If the Women's Reservation Bill - which was tabled in the Rajya Sabha yesterday amidst chaos and disruption - does actually get passed by both houses of Parliament, it will bring to closure an issue that has been hanging fire for 14 years in national politics. It may even be law in time for the next general elections in the country. Of course, it will be...

The countries of Asia and the Pacific have not duplicated their economic success in the realm of gender equality, according to a new United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report, which found that discrimination and neglect are threatening the very survival of women in the region. “Empowering women is vital for achieving development goals overall and for boosting economic growth and sustainable development,” said UNDP Administrator Helen Clark, who unveiled the...

Monica Das Gupta is a senior social scientist at the World Bank. Her field research in Punjab, when she was at the National Council of Applied Economic Research, established that sex differentials in child mortality in rural Punjab persisted despite relative wealth, socio-economic development including rapid universalization of female education, fertility decline, and mortality decline. Amartya Sen’s writings drew attention to female foeticide and infanticide in Asia that led to...

The aftershock of the global financial crisis threatens to deprive millions of children in the world’s poorest countries of an education, the 2010 Education for All Global Monitoring Report warns. With 72 million children still out of school, a combination of slower economic growth, rising poverty and budget pressures could erode the gains of the past decade. “While rich countries nurture their economic recovery, many poor countries face the imminent prospect...

The fourth edition of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) Gender Gap Report, released on October 27, makes for somewhat depressing reading if you are Indian. The country has slipped four places in 2009 to rank 114 out of 134 countries. If there is slight consolation, it is that our biggest global economic competitor, China, fared slightly better, slipping two places over its 2008 ranking. Beyond that, comparisons appear meaningless. At...