U.N. report hails India for narrowing gender gap

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 8. After the Human Development Report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) last week applauding India's improved ranking, it was the turn of the South Asia release of the UNIFEM's report on ``Progress of the World's Women-2000'' here on Thursday. It hailed India for ``improvement in areas of female education, employment and per capita income between mid-80s and late 90s''.

However, none of the changes is significant though the report has special relevance for the country, given that it is on the threshold of the Tenth Five Year Plan and a fresh U.N. system programming cycle.

It has been the UNIFEM's (United Nations Development Fund for Women) endeavour to make women ``visible as actors on the development stage'' - to draw attention to their situations and struggles and help them claim their rights as equal citizens. And India's performance is described as ``welcome news - albeit with a cautionary note''.

As part of the U.N. family's global reviews and by virtue of being the first ever UNIFEM's new biennial report to review progress in implementing commitments made at the Fourth World Conference on Women and the World Summit on Social Development, it has been a heady start for India in the new millennium, mentioned notably for ``narrowing the gender gap'' in certain areas.

The report concentrates on the economic dimensions of gender equality and women's empowerment in the context of globalisation while assessing women's progress. Using a variety of indicators, it examines the issue of accountability focussing particularly on the gender impact of policies and programmes.

At the function organised to release the report, the UNDP Resident Representative in India, Dr. Brenda Gael McSweeney, said the report was important because for the first time numbers and figures had been marshalled to corroborate the warning signals from women's groups and activists about contradictions between gender equality and macroeconomic policies.

``The challenge for everyone, including the women's movement, development workers, Governments and the U.N. family was to make the report a tool for planning and advocacy and an instrument of action for change in approaches and policies,'' she said.

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