Women working the fields in India where a vast number farm, but make little money. Credit: Neeta Lal/IPS
NEW DELHI, Jan 8 2016 (IPS) – Women constitute nearly half of the country s 1.25 billion people and gender equality whether in politics, economics, education or health is still a distant dream for most. This fact was driven home again sharply by the recently released United National Development Programme’s Human Development Report (HDR) 2015 which ranks India at a lowly 130 out of 155 countries in the Gender Inequality Index (GII). India trails behind most Asian countries, including lesser developed Bangladesh and Pakistan which rank 111 and 121 respectively, and fares n…