Status of women and gender discrimination in India: A state wise analysis

In India the condition of women was appalling during independence. The deprivation of women in getting the similar level of opportunities relating to education, health, decision making as men due to prevalence of patriarchal society and socioeconomic backwardness in India put women at a backstage. After independence Indian planners and policy makers recognized the problem and framed variety of policies and programmes to provide women equal status as men. But since after six decades of Indian planning after making various efforts Indian women are still at a backstage than men on various aspects. Under this backdrop, this paper tries to evaluate the status and position of women in India in the light of some important gender –related indicators. It makes a comparative analysis of different states of India in the attainment of the indicators. The indicators chosen cover wide spectrum of socio-economic status of women. The analysis observes a convergence among states on some indicators like female literacy rate, IMR for females, life expectancy of females over the period. But a sharp difference across states is observed regarding the indicators like sex ratio, crime against women. A striking difference is noticed between the northern states and southern states in most of the gender related indicators. The northern states like BIMARU states are still have a long way to go on women progress in India.