HUMAN DEVELOPMENT FOR WOMEN IN INDIA

Human Development for women in India.

Today is International Women’s Day. Each year International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8. The first International Women's Day was held in 1911. Thousands of events occur to mark the economic, political and social achievements of women. Organisations, governments, charities, educational institutions, women's groups, corporations and the media celebrate the day.

The UN theme for International Women's Day 2015 is "Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture it!" Governments and activists around the world will commemorate the 20th anniversary year of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, an historic roadmap that sets the agenda for realizing women's rights.
The International Woman’s Day theme for 2015 is ‘Make It Happen’ with a dedicated hashtag for social media.

All know its significance but most of the people do not aware about the factual figures.

India ranks 135^th in case of world rank in human development index whose value is 0.586 and India belongs to Medium Human Development Countries. But India is improving its index because from 2000 to 2013 India’s human development index increased at the rate of 1.49% per year but its rank could not improve too much. Remind that India’s female human development index is now 0.519 as against 0.629 for male human development index where the female expected years of schooling is 11.3 as against 11.8 for men . Female literacy rate in India is 65.46% as against 82.14 % for male. The male literacy rate is growing at the rate of 6.9% whereas female literacy rate becomes 11.8% per annum. Female life expectancy is 57.7 years in comparison to 54.9 years for male. In 2013, India’s gender inequality index is 0.563 whose world rank is 127^th.India’s female labour force is 28.8% which is too lower than men. Women’s share in Parliament is only 10.9%. India’s adult mortality per 1000 for male is 247 but for female it is only 159.But the suicide rate of female  per lakh is only 7.8 which is too lower than the male of 13.0.The human development report-2014 says that the overall gender gap is 8% deficit. For women per capita income of women is half than that of men. So to reduce the gap , 4% of its GDP is required. The deprivation of women in innumerable both in livelihood or in social security in which dalit women suffers too much in education, job availability,sexual oppression and social crime or violence against dalit women , for example, verbal abuse (62.4%),physical assult(54.8%),sexual harassment and assult(46.8%) domestic violence(43%) and rape(23.2%) respectively.    

Gender equality is not just a condescending goal anymore; it is the necessary missing link for sustainable development, which is now been agreed by all. Reducing gender inequality gives women more money to spend on food, housing and education – essential component for reducing poverty and promoting sustainable development. The consensus is growing: getting more women into the workforce is one of the cure to many economic ills and imperative to sustainable development. If economic growth is to be achieved without social development at the grassroots level, it will not only widen inequality but also give rise to socioeconomic paranoia, socio-political unrest and instability. Growth and progression without development will have dangerous socio-political consequences that could undermine the very essence of freedom and democracy and deepen inequality.

Emphasis on gender budgeting and climate finance for women may have new light for women development in a sustainable manner.