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A Detailed Look: South Asia
Gender discrimination in social institutions is very high across the 7 countries of South Asia, making the region one of the worst performers in the SIGI ranking. The situation is particularly bad in Afghanistan, the lowest ranking country in the region and one of the bottom three performers overall. India and Pakistan are also in the bottom 10. The two biggest concerns for the region are son preference and family code.
Across South Asia, social institutions limit women’s access to education and healthcare. In addition, customs such as purdah – the segregation of women from men – make it harder for women to work outside the home and to move about and dress freely. Similarly, although many women work in farming, social institutions often exclude women from direct access to land.
However, there has been some progress in improving women’s ownership rights. In Nepal, recent legal changes have strengthened women’s inheritance rights and access to property other than land. In Bangladesh, micro-credit loan programmes are allowing women to start and run their own small businesses: there are about 23 million borrowers in total, of which 94% are women.
A major challenge is strengthening women’s role in political decision-making. Some efforts are being made to integrate women’s voices at the local-government level. Since 2000 Bangladesh has reserved seats for women at selected levels of government. India also has recently decided to reserve at least half the seats in village assemblies for women.
Key issues: missing women, early marriage
“Missing women”, a term coined by Nobel-laureate Amartya Sen, refers to gender bias in mortality. His work suggests that the preference for sons over daughters has led to some 100 million “missing women” in South Asia, East Asia and the Middle East and North Africa. This is a result of sex-selective abortion, poorer access for girls and women to nutrition and healthcare and abandonment of female infants. In South Asia – with the exception of Sri Lanka – girls are more likely to die than boys among children aged between 1 and 4. Human Rights Watch has found that in India there are just 927 girls for every 1000 boys.
Early marriage is also prevalent. This is often rooted in tradition and in parents’ wishes to reduce the economic burden on the household. With more than half of women marrying before the age of 15, Bangladesh has the highest rate of early marriage in Asia and among the highest worldwide.
