Gender wise literacy differentials in West Bengal-Progress and achievement towards millenium development goals with special reference to women empowerment

Since post independence, Indian states took a variety of constitutional and administrative measures for the women empowerment. The landmark commitment taken by world Leaders in United Nation at the beginning of the new Millennium was translated into eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG's). MDG has eight Goals, eighteen targets and forty eight indicators. Goal 3 (Promote Gender Equality and Women Empowerment) has one target and four indicators which has been discussed in the present treatise. The aim of this study is to evaluate the progress regarding realization of MDGs, related to women empowerment and eliminating gender disparity in West Bengal. The major objective is to assess the literacy differential between male and female inhabitants in different districts of West Bengal and to investigate the progress made by the State in the process of achieving the MDG's from 2000 to 2015. The present study has been based on secondary sources of data. It appears that in West Bengal, the rate of improvement towards achieving the women empowerment goal of MDG is quite satisfactory but there has been an uneven distribution observed between the districts. Present study may help the policy planners towards proper planning leading to actual women empowerment in our country.