Gender equality and human rights: Constitutional provisions

Gender-based discrimination reveals ugly face of the society. This issue is very old and is global as well with varying degree. Really, it is a travesty of all canons of social justice and equity for women who constitute half of the world's population and work for two-third of the world's working hours and who earn just one-tenth of the world's property and remain victim of inequality and injustice. This anomaly is, now, being openly questioned and the underlying discrimination is seriously challenged. As human development occupies centre stage in the global development debate, gender equality and gender equity are emerging as major challenges. Gender discrimination, though amongst the most subtle, is one of the most all-pervading forms of institutionalised deprivation. Across the world, as many as, one-third of all households were headed by women. Migration was a major cause of this. In many of the poor world's cities, men far outnumber women-leaving large number of women managing alone in rural areas. Divorce is rising all over the world. On top of this, 75 per cent of the health care for elderly people was provided by women at home. Clearly, traditional family structures are under strain across the Earth.