Gender Disparity: Its Manifestations, Causes and Implications

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* The draft reports were presented at the International Conference on “Gender and Food Security” organized by UNU-WIDER held at Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, India in December 2006 and in Ghana in May 2007. We must acknowledge continuous support of Dr. Basudeb Guha Khasnobis and other members of UNU-WIDER Programme for for provodong such opportunities. We are indebted to Professors Sugata Marjit (CSSSC) and Dr. Shubhashis Gangopadhyay (IDF) for their suggestions.. Discussion with Dr. L.C.Jain (Magsaysay Award, 1989 for rural development) helped us to clarify our ideas on many issues which are relevant for rural areas. We gratefully acknowledge the suggestions of the participants of the above conferences. We must also thank S. Gupta, P. Dutta and S. Hazra for data collection and computational service. The first author thankfully acknowledges the benefits received from the filed work in connection with the project on District-wise Social Development Index of MOSPI, GOI. But we blame each other for remaining errors and omissions.
1. The Secretary-general, Kofi Annan stated in his Millennium report, "We must spare no effort to free our fellow men and women from the abject and dehumanizing poverty." “The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest. The eight MDGs are I. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; II. Achieve universal primary education; III. Promote gender equality and empower women; IV. Reduce child mortality; V. Improve maternal health; VI. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; VII. Ensure environmental sustainability; VIII. Develop a global partnership for development.