Gender and development: gaps that persist

Development is not gender-neutral. Women and girls in India have gained on many indicators — schooling, life expectancy and political participation — yet gaps remain in survival, work, assets and safety, and these gaps shape the whole economy. The most basic indicator is the sex ratio at birth: the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019-21) put it at 929 girls per 1,000 boys, up from 919 in NFHS-4, but still below the natural level, reflecting persistent son preference and sex-selective practices despite the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994, which bans sex determination for selection.

The Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme, launched on 22 January 2015, combined enforcement, awareness and support for girls' education to address the declining child sex ratio. Sex ratios at birth have improved in several states, but the national figure remains skewed, and the scheme's critics argue that awareness campaigns cannot substitute for enforcement and for changing the economic reasons families prefer sons — old-age support, dowry costs and inheritance practices. The overall sex ratio of the population, by contrast, reached 1,020 females per 1,000 males in NFHS-5, because women live longer than men at older ages.

Economic gaps are large. As an earlier note showed, female labour force participation rose to 41.7 per cent in 2023-24, but remains far below men's, and much of it is informal and unpaid. Women own less land and fewer assets, face a gender pay gap, and carry most unpaid care work. Political representation has moved further: women now vote at rates equal to or above men, lead panchayats in large numbers under the one-third reservation in local bodies, and the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023, reserves one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, to take effect after delimitation.

Gender and development is therefore not a separate topic but a lens on every other one. Health policy that ignores maternal care, education policy that ignores girls' dropout, employment policy that ignores care work, and urban policy that ignores safe transport will all underperform. The direction of change is clear — gaps are narrowing — but the pace and the quality of change, especially in paid work and asset ownership, remain the real test.