A Discourse on Gender Disparity: A Study on Taluks of Belagavi District

Abstract

The modern period witnessed the increased gender disparity reflected in sex-ratio, literacy and education, employment and wage-rates and several other sociocultural and behavioral indicators of empowerment (Nangia, 2005). Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenges of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance - Kofi Annan (Personal, Archive, Mahanta, & Nayak, 2013). The present paper examines the extent of gender disparity in Belagavi District based on literacy and sex ratio using secondary data. We found that literacy rate in study area was 76.93% in 2001 which is increased to 82.90% in 2011 and sex ratio in the study area was 960 in 2001 which is increased to 973 in 2011. There are wide disparities from rural to urban sex ratio as well as rural to urban literacy rate. The urban sex ratio is higher than rural sex ratio in study area. The rural sex ratio is 970 and urban sex ratio is 979 females per thousand males in the 2011. We found that in Belagavi district, there is reduction in gender disparities from 2001 to 2011 but the reduction rate is very slow.