India Scores Low on Women Advancement Index

Ari Sarker, MasterCard’s Division President of South Asia said "It is well established that a country's social and economic development is closely tied to factors including access to education, employment and political leadership opportunities. While South Asia has recently witnessed an increase in the attention and focus by both public and private sectors towards affirmative action for women, much remains to be done in the march towards gender equality," as reported by TNN.

"As emerging economies in the region step up to establish their presence in the global economy, it is important that the barriers preventing women in these markets from seizing economic opportunities be eliminated," he added.

However, this recent index has been disagreed by local experts. According to the director of the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Dr. R.S. Deshpande, India cannot be worse that Bangladesh and Pakistan when it comes to the index for education and employment.

"Sri Lanka may be above India in women's employment and education because the literacy rate there is higher than that of India, but I doubt so with the Pakistan and Bangladesh," he said, as reported by TNN.

However, some others still agree that the empowerment of women in India is a concern where the political class has been ignoring women right from independence.

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