Disparities in Development, Status of Women and Social Opportunities: Indian Experience

The focus of this article is the comparative analysis of the seventeen major states of India, which have an intrinsic bearing on social, economic and human development. Inter-state comparison in the areas of economic well-being, health, education, human development index, status of women and social opportunities have been done. For comparing these dimensions of development, different variables like Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) per capita, poverty estimate (head count ratio), Infant mortality rate (IMR) and Maternal mortality rate (MMR) Adult literacy rate, the elementary education dropout rate, Human Development Index (HDI), female literacy rate, sex ratio, maternal mortality rate, percentage of anemic women, percentage of women who have ever experienced spousal violence, percentage of married women who participate in household decisions, percentage of population having electricity, using piped drinking water and have access to toilet facilities. In the end of this article, the linkages between social opportunities, status of women and development has been calculated with the help of correlation and the results show the strong relationship between the three mentioned variables.