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1 Extended Abstract Disparities in Social Development and Status of women: An analysis of India and its states Ranjana Kesarwani* *Doctoral Candidate, International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai , Maharashtra India, Background India is country of diversity with not only in terms of economic, social and cultural but also in terms of gender difference across states of India. In words of Amartya Sen (1995) Social Development is equality of social opportunities. A study by Bilance (1997) also supports that social development is the promotion of a sustainable society that is worthy of human dignity by empowering marginalized groups, women and men, to undertake their own development, to improve their social and economic position and to acquire their rightful place in society. Various researchers (Sen A, 1999; Balakrishnan 1987) debate that for a nation s development we must comprise all prospects of development e.g. Human development, social development, economic development, gender equality in terms of heightening the status of women etc. The women autonomy and women status are the two important faces of the sustainable social development (Sulaja, 2004). The endeavor of women in household production and outside the home has a multiplying effect on the development of women and their emancipation. Status of individual can be characterized as extent of control that the individual has over their own life derived from access to knowledge, economic resources and degree of autonomy enjoyed in the process of decision making. It is assumed that the status of women and discrimination against them are reciprocally related and therefore the changing status of women is directly linked to the social development of the society. There is a lot of evidence affirming that countries that follow the specific measures to raise women s access to resources and educational level have less inducement attain quicker development in all views (Kumar, N., 2011). From social development point of view low status of women badly limit the expansion and utilization of human resources and capabilities and it has firm inference on social growth of any society. The status of women in India has been subordinated to several changes over the past few decades. The Government of India declared year 2001 as the year of women empowerment. The Policy for the empowerment of women was also passed in the same year. Keeping all the above discussion in mind the present paper attempts to highlight issues of changing women s status and its link to social development in India and states. Also study tries to compare the improvement in all considered states in terms of women status and social development over the period. Also the purpose of the present research is exploring the ranking of states within the country on the basis of development indicator. Methodology Study Design and Data The study is done for all states of India over the period. The required data is extracted from the first and third round of Family Health survey which was conducted during and respectively. These surveys are nationally representative and cover more than 99 percent of Indian population. These data render the consistent and reliable estimates of fertility, mortality, family planning, utilization of maternal and reproductive health services, domestic violence and women status etc. at all India level as well as state and regional level. The NFHS-1 covered the 88,562 sample household and 89,777 ever married women of age whereas NFHS-3 covered the 109,041 nationally representative sample of household and 124,385 ever married women of age and 74,369 men of age Extended Abstract Submitted for XXVII IUSSP International Population Conference, Busan, Korea, August P a g e

2 To analyze the women status and social development we have assigned the several indicators. Then indices are formulated for both separately and comparison is made among all states. The description of the indicator for women status and social development is explained below: Indicators for the Status of women Variable related to women are considered to create women status index (WSI). The first round of survey collects information on the ever married women of age whereas the third round informs about women aged We have used the 11 indicators- female literacy rate (age 6+), median age at first marriage, median age at first birth, women using modern contraceptive, women not anemic, women received at least one antenatal checkup (ANC), Institutional delivery, exposed to any source of media (either television or radio or news paper), women currently working, women involved in decision making to own health and women with Access of money. The data referring to women involved in decision making of their own health, access to money and anemia level is not available in NFHS-1, therefore to study the status of women during NFHS-1 round we have excluded these three variables. Indicators for the Social Development The study uses the eleven indicators to study the changes in social development in India and states over the period. The indicators are percent of overall literacy rate, percent of urban population, under five mortality rate (probability of dying before the fifth birthday), percent of household with piped drinking water, percent of household with any toilet facility, percent of household with electricity facility, percent of household with house type as pucca, percent of full vaccination (it includes BCG, 3 doses of polio not adding the polio at birth, 3 doses of DPT, 1 dose of measles by age of 12) coverage among children of age 12-23, crude birth rate, crude death rate and total fertility rate. All indicators are selected on the basis of availability of data in data source. Statistical tool The approach here used is the Taxonomic method which was developed by Polish mathematician in the early fifties and proposed by UNESCO in 1968 as a means of comparing the levels of development. It is an excellent method for ranking, classifying and comparing regions with respects to the changing level of development or performance (Prakasam et. al., 1985). This is considered as a statistical method of determining the homogeneous units in n dimensional vector space without the use of regression, variance and correlation analysis (Harbison et. al., 1968). It is relatively simple but lengthy process. A short mathematical description of the methodology is communicated here. Let 1, 2, 3..n be the number of states and 1, 2, 3.m be the count of indicator treating with development or changing status. Then A n m be the data matrix acting as various indicators by states. In this method first requirement is to convert indicator values into quantities which can be added together because selected indicators are not having the same level of measurement scale. It is done by the process of standardization using mean and standard deviation. Using this standardized matrix (D n m ) we will create a distance matrix representing the distance from each state to remaining other states for all m indicators. The composite distance between two regions for any set of m indicator is deduced by the using following expression: C a b = [ ) 2 ] 1/2..(1) Where a = 1, 2, 3..n and b = 1, 2, 3..n with C a b = 0; C a b = C b a and C a b C a k + C k b Once the matrix C is available, the minimum distance C a from any region to all other remaining regions in the row can be encountered which is the closest point within a given frame of reference. Now the Pattern of development is measured as C io = ) 2 ] 1/2.. (2) Where C io identifies the pattern of development and I = 1, 2, 3..n. O is the maximum or best standardized value determined from standardized matrix D n m. The pattern concerns the composite distance composite 2 P a g e

3 distance from the ideal states (state having best standardized value) to every other states. The Measure of development is a function of pattern of development and the critical distance from the ideal country. It can be obtained as follows: d i = C io /C o.. (3) where, C o = C io + 2*S io.. (4) and =..(5) and S io = ) 2 ] 1/2..(6) In the equation (3) d i addressed as the measure of development. The d i closer to zero implies the more development in a region and nearer to one entails the less development. Therefore d i lies between 0 and 1. In some rare case where any region is not linked to other regions, value of measure exceeds 1but probability of such an event is very small. Results and Discussion India is characterized by tremendous variations in regional experiences and achievements even in women status also. State wise distribution of the indicators of women s status and social development is presented in Table 1 and 2. Table 1 talk about the disparities in social development indicators among states of India. Study found that during NFHS-1, literacy rate was highest in but in NFHS-3 was recognized as state having highest literacy. However was at lowest level throughout the whole NFHS rounds. Urban population is maximum in over the three surveys and lowest in Himachal Pradesh. Northern states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh are performing very worst in fertility and mortality indicators. Table 2 describes about the performance of the various states and union territories on the basis of status of women. Study revealed that during NFHS-1, was the maximum literate state while Rajasthan was lowest. However over the time period Rajasthan has improved the educational level and becomes the lowest performing state. The study found that the women s work status is low in Punjab over the both NFHS round. The use of health care utilization like received antenatal care, institutional delivery is highest in ; it may be because of high educational level. Age at marriage and age at birth continued to be high in and it always more than the national level. The Pattern, Measure indices and ranking for the states were computed on the basis of women status and social development indicators and presented in Table 3. Comparing the indices for each states data shows that during the NFHS-1, Haryana is identified as a most socially developed state. The present study observed the decline in social development indices of state Haryana from NFHS-1 to NFHS-3 (from rank 1- rank 9) and along with this decline in women status over the period. In, women s status is at highest level (Rank 1) whereas still worst in (Rank 26) with the improvement in social development indicators and over the period status did not change. The study found that with increasing social development, women s status is also increasing over the two surveys; but there are some states in which advancement in social indicators does not altering the women s status. Concluding Remarks In order to verify the linkages between the social development and status of women, Taxonomic method is applied. This method provides the two indices say pattern and measures and based on these two indexes we are able to make the rank classification of states within India. The study did not make any attempt for causal analysis; it may be interesting to identify the causal connections that certainly do exist between the two social 3 P a g e

4 development and status of women. The strength of the links varies according to the large range of factors. The overall results indicate that social development will not much help to raise the status of women. There is need for special measures to provide the women equal opportunity and to mainstream them. Important References Balakrishnan, T. R.(1987). Status of Women, development and demographic change. Canadian Studies in Population 14(1) Gupta, D. (2009). Disparities in Development, Status of Women and Social Opportunities: Indian Experience. Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences 1(3): Harbison, F. H., Joan Maruhic and J. R. Resnick (1968). Quantitative Analysis of Modernization and Development. Department of Economics, Princeton University, Princeton New Jersey. Prakasam, C. P. and Subramanyam, L. B. (1985). Family Planning Performance in India- A Methodological Approach. Journal of Family Welfare 31(3):39-45 Sulaja, S. (2004). Social Development and Women in Status - An Analysis of South Indian States. The Journal of Family Welfare 50 (2): Table 1: Disparities in social indicator performance: The Best and The Worst Performing States in India NFHS-I NFHS-III Social Indicators Literacy Rate 51.6 (79.7) (35.7) (82.8) (44.3) 60.5 Urban Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh 29.2 Population (91.8) (10.8) (91.6) (10.6) 32.1 HH with Drinking Punjab 68.2 Water (99.5) (21.5) (99.5) (52.1) 81.8 HH with Toilet 30.3 (98.3) (12.2) (98.0) (19.3) 44.6 HH with 50.9 Electricity (95.5) (16.7) (99.3) (34.0) 67.9 Pucca House Arunachal Pradesh 23.7 (81.0) (2.2) (95.0) (10.7) 45.9 Full vaccination Tamil Nadu Himachal Pradesh 28.3 (58.7) (2.8) (80.9) (6.2) 43.5 U5MR Assam Madhya Pradesh (142.2) (20.7) (92.2) (16.3) 74.3 CBR Uttar Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Sikkim 28.7 (35.9) (17.2) (26.3) (13.5) 18.8 TFR Uttar Pradesh Sikkim 3.4 (4.82) (1.9) (2.7) (1.3) 2.1 CDR Madhya Pradesh 10.1 (12.9) (6.3) (9.3) (4.5) 7.5 Sources: Family Health Survey, and Family Health Survey, P a g e

5 Table 2: Disparities in women status: The Best and The Worst Performing States in India NFHS-I NFHS-III Women status indicators Rajasthan Female Literacy Rate 42.2 (90.5) (17.9) (96.0) (37.9) Median Age at Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh 17.2 Marriage (20.7) (15.3) (22.1) (15.9) Women Exposed to Jharkhand 53.0 Any Media (87.2) (29.5) (98.8) (53.8) Women currently Himachal Pradesh Punjab 33.4 working (70.2) (11.6) (59.6) Women Involved in decision Making to N A N A NA (91.9) own Health Women with Access of Andhra Pradesh N A N A NA Money (48.7) Median Age at First 19.0 Birth (22.0) (17.0) (24.0) Women using Modern Delhi Himachal Pradesh 37.0 Contraceptive (54.6) (13.0) (72.0) Jharkhand Women Not Anemic NA NA NA (72.3) Women received at Rajasthan 62.3 Tamil Nadu (98.6) least one ANC (97.3) (31.2) Institutional delivery 27.7 (89.5) (5.6) (99.4) Sources: Family Health Survey, and Family Health Survey, Punjab (20.9) Jammu & Kashmir (43.5) (37.4) (18.0) Meghalaya (20.9) (34.4) (34.10) (11.8) States Table 3: Rank ordering of states in India. Social Indicators Women Status NFHS-I NFHS-III NFHS-I NFHS-III Pattern Measure Rank Pattern Measure Rank Pattern Measure Rank Pattern Measure Rank Andhra Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Assam Gujarat Haryana Himachal Pradesh Jammu & Kashmir Karnataka Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Meghalaya Orissa Punjab Rajasthan Sikkim Tamil Nadu Tripura Uttar Pradesh P a g e