NEW DELHI – With one million girls ‘missing’ in India, a World Bank report has cautioned that this continued economic gap between men and women could spell disaster for the country. Female labour force participation is South Asia (including India) is among the lowest in the developing world.
The report ‘World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development’ said that while life expectancy had increased in low and middle income countries by 20 years since 1960, yet in comparison to men, almost 4 million women died too early in the developing world compared to rich countries. Almost one million of these excess deaths were in India – evenly distributed across the three periods in the life cycle – before birth, in infancy and early childhood; and in reproductive years.
WDR co-director Sudhir Shetty said gender selection at birth, poor sanitation and health services in infancy and low access to health facilities ensured that fewer women were born and lived in developing countries.
While developing countries like India have been able to substantially close the education gap between men and women, the report said differences in access to economic opportunities persisted.
Analyzing this, World Bank’s lead social development specialist Maitreyi Bordia Das said women’s own education and higher spousal wages contributed to lower work force participation by females.
