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This document has been prepared by the Department
of Statistics and Programme Implementation, India.
It has been issued as submitted.
I.
INTRODUCTION
Today at the turn of 20th
Century, it should no longer be necessary to justify
the need for gender based data. Studying the situation
that males and females are in and being able to
compare differences between genders is becoming
a subject of increasing interest. The development
of Gender Development Index (GDI) by the UNDP
in 1995 generated lot of research examining its
suitability for the developing countries. Efforts
have also been made to compute the value of GDI
for sub-national level. There are some problems
in using the UNDP Methodology for computation
of GDI for developing countries including India.
The computation of GDI at periodic interval also
puts a heavy demand on the statistical system
of the country to generate requisite data at regular
interval and with the appropriate geographical
disaggregation. In this paper an attempt has been
made to discuss briefly the UNDP Methodology for
computation of GDI and the problems involved in
using the same methodology for computation of
this index for India. Efforts have been also made
to describe the attempts made in the country to
finalize the suitable indicators for the study
of gender discrimination in India as well as the
development of GDI. The role of different statistical
agencies in this exercise has been also discussed
in the paper.
II.
UNDP METHODOLOGY OF COMPUTATION OF GDI
The Human Development Index
(HDI) propounded by the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) in 1990, has rekindled the debate
on what is development and, within it, what is
human development. The 1995 Human Development
Report (HDR) introduced the concept of Gender
Development Index (GDI), arguing that without
engendering human development is endangered (UNDP,1995)
. In the 1995 HDR, the concept of Gender Empowerment
Measure (GEM) was also added. The debate on women/gender
and development was at centre- stage in the international
arena in1995 because of UN's Fourth International
Conference of Women at Beijing in 1994 as well
as UN's Social Summit Conference at Copenhagen
in March 1995. These events have generated debates
among researchers, policy-makers, planners and
grass roots activities on development, human development
and gender development. The initiatives of the
UNDP in introducing HDR in 1990, therefore, was
laudable, not only because human development is
important, but also because the concern for human
well-being was lost in the overzealous pursuit
of the economic growth paradigm during the 1980's.
The UNDP defines human development as "a process
of increasing people's choices and formation
of human capabilities through investing in people"
[UNDP 1990]. The HDI is a composite index of
three basic components, namely, longevity measured
in life expectancy at birth, knowledge measured
in adult literacy rate and combined enrolment
ratio at primary, secondary and tertiary level,
and access to resources measured in per capita
income adjusted for the Purchasing Power Parity
[PPP].
The GDI measures the achievements of women
with respect to the same capabilities while
taking note of inequality in the achievements
between men and women. That is GDI is simply
HDI discounted or adjusted downwards for gender
inequality [UNDP 1995]. The discounting is done
with respect to aversion to gender inequality
a society can have. Moderate gender aversion
is accepted by the HDR 1995 and is represented
in the index by the concept termed as epsilon,
which is assigned the value of 2 in the calculation
of the GDI. The GEM examines whether women actively
participate in the economic and political life
and in the decision-making as men. Four indicators
- the percentage of seats in parliament held
by women, the percentage of women as administrators
and managers,, the percentage of women as professionals
and technical workers, and the percentage of
income shared by women - are used for constructing
the GEM[UNDP 1995]. While GDI is expected to
focus on expansion of capabilities, GEM is concerned
with the use of these capabilities to take advantage
of the opportunities in life.
III.
PROBLEMS WITH THE USE OF UNDP METHODOLOGY OF GDI
FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES INCLUDING INDIA
It needs to be recognized that
in most of the third world countries, poverty
accentuates the problems faced by women. In these
countries, gender relations are influenced by
traditional hierarchies based on patriarchy, caste
and ethnicity and compounded by inequalities of
wealth and power. Women in the lower strata are
not only exploited economically but are also socially
oppressed much more than the male working poor.
Economic stratification implies that the nature
and level of oppression as well as relative access
of females to social and family investment in
education and health care differs according to
class. Furthermore, community level factors such
as physical and social environment have a much
larger impact on the lives of poor women in rural
areas. Had the UNDP attempted an independent formulation
of the GDI, deriving its framework from the experience
of developing countries, it could not but have
taken note of indicators such as access to fuel
and water, property rights, incidents of violence
against women in various spheres, etc. The UNDP's
effort would have been more meaningful had it
attempted constructing a comprehensive index that
is sensitive to the special problems faced by
women in developing countries.
Some specific problems in using the UNDP's
methodology of computation of GDI in developing
countries are given below:
(a) OVEREMPHASIS ON INCOME
The HDI and the GDI both give
one-third weightage to income irrespective of
its composition and distribution. By now many
criticisms have been levelled at use of income
as a measure of welfare. In short, the income
is not a satisfactory measure of welfare as well
as capabilities because: [a] income increases
with many unnecessary economic activities, which
are negative for human/gender development as military
expenditures; [b] income from other negative activities
such as crime, unrest and drugs and expenditure
on diseases are also included; [c] income increases
with the depletion caused by thoughtless exploitation
of natural resources and passing on the costs
of pollution to the society; and [d] income does
not include unpaid family work, voluntary services
etc.
The much appreciated human values of caring
and sharing, altruism, which do not generate
income but are most important for human development
are discounted by income. This is important
in case of women in the developing countries
who are involved in unpaid activities for the
welfare of the households. By the inclusion
of income as a measure of human/gender development,
those involved in damaging activities and thus
earning higher income can be considered more
developed than those involved in altruistic
activities and not earning income. Also, in
the traditional rural systems, access to resources,
for example basic needs such as water, fuel
and nutritional food, is ensured by customary
practices and not income. These traditional
non-monetary systems have met the needs of the
rural poor households and more so of women.
Thus, although, income does reflect control
of a person on resources to an extent, it cannot
be given one-third weightage in the construction
of the HDI/GDI.
(b) POVERTY, INEQUALITY
AND PATRIARCHY
Two of the major concerns of
the developing countries are poverty and inequality,
which are not reflected in the human/gender development
measures. These two aspects are also critical
for ensuring human/gender development. Per capital
income neither adequately reflect the incidence
of poverty and deprivation prevailing in these
countries nor does it depict the widespread exploitative
inequalities that exist here. Any development
measure that does not pay any attention to these
aspects will not be properly measuring the human/gender
development in the countries of the developing
countries.
Education as an important aspect of women's
development has been accepted by all. However,
it is realized that women's education alone
cannot empower them to change gender relations
within patriarchal society and the given economic
order. The strategic gender need is the relieving
or sharing the burden of the social reproduction
sector that women solely carry on their shoulders.
This will release tremendous potential of women
towards achieving gender development. The other
important dimension in women's life is fear
of violence against them during all stages of
their life. Neither income, nor education nor
better health can remove this fear or make the
families and society share their burden of social
reproduction. What is required is doing away
with the structural limitations of the patriarchal
system imposed on the women.
IV.
INDIAN EXPERIENCE OF DEVELOPMENT OF INDICATORS
FOR STUDY OF GENDER DISCRIMINATION AND GDI
Keeping in view the limitation
of UNDP Methodology for computation of GDI, a
Technical Advisory Committee was constituted by
the Department of Statistics and Programme Implementation
(DOS&PI) in October 1997 to advise on various
measures for making available gender related data
at State and National level and to advise on the
methodology for computation of Human Development
Index (HDI) and Gender Development Index (GDI)
at various geographical levels. Different concerned
Departments such as Department of Women and Child
Development (DWCD), Department of Family Welfare
and data producing agencies were represented on
this Committee. The first meeting of the Committee
was held in March 1998. On the request of the
DWCD, it was decided that DOS&PI will collaborate
with them for organizing a workshop to finalize
the indicators which may be used for computation
of GDI. Accordingly two workshops were organised
in November and December 1998. In these workshops
DOS&PI actively participated in identifying
and finalizing the indicators keeping in view
the feasibility of data collection on these indicators
at appropriate geographical level.
In India the main administrative unit for different
types of developmental planning is district.
Therefore, emphasis has been to generate the
requisite indices at district, state and national
level. After detail deliberations in the workshops
and after further consultations, a list of 18
indicators found most suitable for study of
gender discrimination was finalized. In this
list the data source agency and the periodicity
of availability of data on these indicators
were also finalized. List of these 18 indicators
is Annexed.
All the 18 indicators are to be compiled for
each district of the country. However, most
of the indicators are to be generated either
from Population Census or National Sample Survey
Organisation. Such data from these sources are
generally available at the gaps of 5 to 10 years.
Therefore, if the computation of the indicators
is to be done at more frequent interval then
these sources will not be able to meet the requirement.
With a view to get more frequent data on some
of these indicators, an exercise is likely to
be taken shortly to examine the data being generated
for the implementation of various health and
nutritional programme. For example, lots of
anthropometric data are collected in the Integrated
Child Development Scheme (ICDS) which can be
used for developing health indicators. An exercise
has to be also undertaken to explore the possibility
of collection of these data through sample survey.
V.
PREPARATION OF STATE LEVEL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT
In India some of the States
namely Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka had already
prepared State level Human Development Report
on the pattern of UNDP's Human Development Report.
Keeping in view the utility of these reports Planning
Commission of the Government of India has initiated
a scheme with financial assistance from UNDP to
provide assistance to the States for preparation
of the State level Human Development Report (SHDR).
A national level Human development Report is also
planned to be prepared by the Planning Commission.
A workshop was organised during July 30-31, 1999
to finalize the indicators to be included in the
national and SHDR. Department of Statistics actively
participated in this workshop and expressed opinions
on the selection criteria of the indicators. Though
the list of indicators is yet to be finalized,
there was almost an agreement on substitution
of the per capita income variables by per capita
real consumption expenditure. One of the important
reasons for suggesting this substitution is the
availability of consumption expenditure data even
at the district level by pooling the central and
state sample of the National Sample Survey. Consumption
expenditure data are collected quinquennially
by the NSSO. Moreover, pooling of central and
state sample data on consumption expenditure would
also help in computing the district level poverty
estimate which is required for planning purposes.
Another important reason is the problem regarding
the methodology and data availability for computation
of district income.
VI.
DEVELOPMENT OF GDI
Although presently an exercise
for the identification of the indicators to be
used for the computation of the GDI and examination
of the data availability on these indicators at
different geographical level in going on, no decision
has been taken regarding the weighting pattern
for combining different indicators to get a single
value for the GDI. Though some attempts have been
made in this direction, final decisions may still
need some more time. An important issue with the
development of GDI for States and Districts is
the assigning of the suitable weights for different
indicators. India is a vast country with lot of
diversity. The importance of Indicators also varies
from State to State. For example, the importance
of poverty indicator may be very high for Bihar
and not so high for Punjab. While developing the
weighting pattern in due course on a scientific
basis such issues will be kept in mind.
VII.
RESPONSIBILITIES TO BE SHARED BY THE STATISTICAL
SYSTEM OF THE COUNTRY IN THIS EXERCISE
The DOS & PI initiated the
exercise for computation of the GDI & HDI
for different geographical level in the country.
Afterwards various other concerned Ministries/organisations
also got involved in this exercise. The DOS &
PI have to play a very crucial role in this exercise
as the whole Statistical System have to be geared
up for meeting the data requirements of this exercise.
For the 18 identified indicators, a training programme
is to be organised shortly for the officers of
Directorate of Economics & Statistics and
Department of Women & Child Development from
each of the State and Union Territory Governments
across the country. This training programme will
explain the concepts & definitions involved
in each indicator and the sources from which these
can be compiled.
As already mentioned, most of the 18 indicators
are available from Population Census and National
Sample Survey Organisation with a periodicity
of 10 & 5 years respectively. To facilitate
the computation of GDI at more frequent interval,
all the major data producing agencies have to
be brought in a forum in due course to explore
the possibility of collecting such indicators
at more frequent intervals and mainstreaming
the gender data in the work of these agencies.
For exploring the possibilities of collection
of some of the information required for computation
of GDI & HDI through sample survey in States
and Union Territories, Department of Statistics
and programme Implementation will play its nodal
role in developing the Sampling Design and Questionnaire.
VIII.
USE OF DATA FROM TIME USE SURVEY IN THE EXERCISE
ON GDI
As mentioned earlier the unpaid
activities of the women are not taken care of
in the per capita income which is one of the three
indicators considered for computation of GDI.
The work participation rate as available from
general household employment and unemployment
survey are invariably an under estimate for women.
The Time Use Survey can be utilized to know the
contribution of women in unpaid activities and
also capture women's work participation rate more
accurately. These data can be suitably used in
the computation of GDI. India is the first among
the developing countries to conduct a large scale
Time Use Survey. This survey was conducted during
July 1998-June 1999 and covered 18600 Households
spread over six States namely Gujarat, Haryana,
Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Meghalaya.
In this survey, details of the activities performed
by members (aged 6 years and above) of the selected
households in a reference period of one week were
collected. The preliminary results of the first
sub-round (July -September, 1998) are available
and the data processing of other three sub-rounds
is presently going on. Results of all the four
sub-rounds are expected to be available by December
1999. To share the Indian experience in this new
venture, an International Conference is also being
organized at Ahmedabad in December 1999.
Annexure
LIST OF INDICATORS
Sr. No.
Indicators
Definitions 1. For Males 2. For Females
Data Source Level
Periodicity
National
State
District
1.
Sex Ratio
For both
males and Females
Total No. of Females -----
X 1000
Total No. of Males
i. Census ii. Official
Population Projection iii. NSSO's -Socio Economic
Rounds (likely)
Census official Population Projection NSSO's -Socio Economic Rounds (likely)
Percentage Students appearing
for 10th Board Examination
1.
For Male
No. of male students appearing in 10th
Examination
----------
Total No. of male students in the age
Group 15-16 years
2. For Female
No. of Female students appearing in 10th
Examination
----------
Total No. of Female students in the age
Group 15-16 years
Board of High School Examination
Board of High School Examination
Board of High School Examination
Annual
Note: Worker
has been defined by NSSO as person engaged in
any gainful activities which are again defined
as activities pursued for pay, profit or family
gain or in other words, the activities which adds
value to the national product. Normally, it is
an activity which results in production of goods
and services for exchange. However, the activities
in agriculture in which a part or whole of the
agricultural production is used for own consumption
and does not go for sale are also considered gainful.
Execution of household chores or social commitment,
etc. are not considered gainful activities. The
activities such as prostitution, begging, etc,
which may result in earnings, are, by convention,
not considered gainful.
