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by Lionel Wijesiri

Human development means different things to different people. However, almost all agree that access to the bare necessities of life (food, shelter and clothing), education and healthcare are important and fundamental aspects of human development. More arguable aspects of human development are personal freedom and democracy.

There is no foolproof way to measure human development but one can get a good idea by considering the fundamental factors behind human development.

In that sense, Human Development Index worked out by The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is generally considered a good measure of human development.

The UNDP uses three factors to calculate the Human Development Index: life expectancy, access to education and per capita gross domestic product (GDP).

GDI

From 1995 the UNDP annual report has included a gender-related development index (GDI) and a gender empowerment measure (GEM) as complementary and specific categories of the HDI. The gender category used by the UN refers to the social functions that are designated based on biological references such as sex, which are often translated into differences that discriminate against women.

The GDI includes the same basic data as the HDI - such as life expectancy at birth, access to education and per capita product - but focuses on the differences between men and women in these areas as a way to measure the status of the female population in each country.

According to the latest figures, out of 175 countries Sri Lanka ranks 80th for its GDI, which is much better than most of our neighbours.

The following table gives comparisons among a few of our neighbouring nations.

Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala, former Under-Secretary General for Disarmament Affairs says, "We are situated about the middle - not as developed as the countries of the North America, Europe and some Asian countries like Singapore and Republic of Korea and South American nations like Chile and Mexico and yet not as bad as many other Asian and African countries". " This is mainly because our women live longer than men do and our education system is evenly balanced between opportunities for girls and boys".

Dr. Dhanapala adds: "If one of your children had brought home a report card showing that he was in the middle of the class, you would not be very pleased and would urge him to do better. That is what Sri Lanka must do for the sake of our women."

Database

First of all, there is a desperate need for databases broken down by sex to get a better understanding of differences in the incidence of poverty between men and women and between different groups of women. This may require a comprehensive national survey. In addition, studies need to be conducted that focus on women's participation in the informal sector, as well as women's unwaged work within the household (such as time use surveys). Moreover, data need to be updated on a more regular basis than is presently the case.

Data on women's socio-economic position, as well as the imputed value of their unwaged work, should be published alongside national macroeconomic data, along with targets for improvements.

Government can indirectly encourage the private sector to move towards gender equality by publishing a performance table, which ranks firms and agencies by gender achievement. Indicators could include, for example, the percentage of female staff, as well as proportion of women at senior levels.

Consumers will then be able to take their business to those firms, which they most approve of, allowing the desire to maximise profits to drive reform, and policy-makers will be given incentive to correct gender inequalities in public agencies.

Through the mass media, formal and non-formal education, production of information and awareness materials, and national campaign days, the Government needs to increase awareness of the situation of our women.

Government should also provide budgetary support to women's support groups at the community level (contingent to the review of their action plans and monitoring their performance), so that they can establish shelters for women and children affected by domestic violence, carry out community sensitisation programmes on that subject, and provide support groups and counselling for women. A goal in this area is that, eventually, every man who commits domestic violence would have to face moral pressure from a committee of a dozen or so neighbours.

All our development and integration efforts should take into consideration the issue of gender inequality. We must be committed to achieve gender equality in our country and adopt a policy and institutional framework to improve gender empowerment.

Objective

What should be our objective in 2008? Among others four matters should have priority.

* Achieving at least 30 per cent women in political and decision-making structures by 2005 * Promoting women's full access to and control over productive resources to reduce the level of poverty among women.

* Repealing and reforming all laws, amending the Constitution and changing social practices which still subject women to discrimination.

* Taking urgent measures to prevent and deal with the increasing level of violence against women and children.

Fifty two per cent of our population are women. But the woman representation in the Parliament is only 4.4 per cent. In the local government sector, it is only 1.8 per cent. In this context, the targeted 30 per cent female participation in Parliament by 2008 is still far away.

As Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala emphasises: "Sri Lanka has an advantage of having a history where gender equality had been a cherished value. Queens had ruled Sri Lanka and the respect for women was deeply embedded in the culture".

However, advocacy for women's empowerment is still looked upon by many as a 'not that important' matter and women hardly get the chance to fight for gender empowerment on a governmental level or in leading positions in the economy. Official structures entrusted with the tasks of formulating gender policies, both in the political and the socio-economic areas, and of enforcing legal instruments to bring about women's empowerment are presided over by a predominantly male hierarchy, which often presents a challenge to reform.

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