Measuring Gender Discrimination: The Indian Experience and a new Index

Abstract

The problem of gender disparity exists in India as in many other developing and developed countries. There is a growing concern about the falling female-male ratio (FMR), a very important indicator of this inequality. Overall evaluation of the quality of life in the mode of averages puts little weight on the reality of a falling sex ratio. The standard gender development measures capture this inequality inadequately. The literature records a number of contradictory claims and findings on the subject. Strikingly, this falling FMR over time reflects gross deprivation of nearly fifty percent of our population and given that these deprivations are rising, the increasing value of gender development index is highly misleading, possibly concealing a deteriorating quality of life for females. The basic objective of this paper is to construct an aggregative index which will be able to resolve the problem.

Bibliometric Mapping of Gender Disparity in Research Publications in India during 1999-2018

“…However, some researchers reported the inverse; that woman dominated over men. Gender inequality also found in India [2], with reports at the level of student admissions, graduates and qualifications. Traditionally, men have dominated in Higher Education; for example, the renowned Oxford University did not start awarding degrees to women until 1920 [3].…”

“…Women make up 60% of graduates in Europe, however the percentage is lower at the level of PhD, where women make up 47% of graduates [8]. Similar gender disparity can also be seen in India [2], with males being over-represented in many sectors. In India, females face problems in education, in society, and feel that they are under great pressure [9].…”

“…Himachal Pradesh was reported as one of the three states exhibiting the highest gender disparity in India [11]. Hence, the Government of India has made moves to support women's education by reducing tuition fees and reserving jobs, among other measures [2], [11]- [13].…”

Gender Discrimination, Competition and Efficiency

“…Several other authors have reflected and analysed the issue of gender-related discrimination in terms of various dimensions such as social, political and economic. The papers by Rajaram et al (2022), Mukhopadhyay et al (2009) and Costagliola (2021) are on gender discrimination specifically in the context of the Indian economy. However, the discussions in these papers are entirely different from the focus of our paper.…”