A Study of Gender Inequality in 15 Selected Villages in Nadia District, West Bengal, India

The paper attempts to identify the different facets of gender inequality in rural population of 15 villages in Nadia district, West Bengal, India. An illustration has been given on the spatio-temporal variations of gender inequality based on 12 variables following the Ibrahim Index (Mo Ibrahim Foundation of African Governance, 2012) during the period of 1991 to 2011. The level of gender inequality has also been measured with the help of composite Ibrahim Index based on these variables for the years 1991 and 2011. The common variables responsible for gender inequality of these villages have been identified using Factor Analysis (Hotelling, 1933; Sharma, 2004) for the years 1991 and 2011. The composite Ibrahim Index shows that though an increase is observed in the relative attainment of female during the study period in these villages it retains a wide gap with the male attainments. In addition the important variables responsible for gender inequality in these villages in the year 1991 are child sex ratio, percentage of household with male and female earner, male literacy rate and male mean years of schooling. Similarly for the year 2011, the significant variables are sex ratio, child sex ratio, percentage of household with male and female principal earner, female literacy rate and female mean years of schooling.