Anindita Sengupta

This article proposes to measure functioning-based well-being, as proposed by Amartya Sen and others, for 28 states in India based on National Family Health Survey 3 (2005-06) data. Significant differences between states were found in terms of well-being and wealth indices. Overall, women were found to be far behind men in terms of well-being. The well-being of women was found to decline with age and when they were in larger families, unlike men. While upper-caste women were not found to be doing significantly better than Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe women, upper-caste men were better off. And the women in the northern mountainous regions were found to be doing better than women in the Indo-Gangetic plains. However, the well-being of both men and women was found to be significantly related to the wealth they possessed.

Read more about Gender Inequality in Well-being in India

Gender Wage Discrimination across Social and Religious Groups in India

Vol. 49, Issue No. 21, 24 May, 2014

Anindita Sengupta, Panchanan Das

This paper focuses on gender wage discrimination across different social and religious groups by addressing the fact that the observed productivity differences between women and men are not only responsible for the huge gender wage gap in India, but for the same levels of productivity, women have been paid lower wages than men. Gender discrimination, superimposed on caste and religious discrimination, accentuates the social exclusion of women belonging to certain castes and religions. We try to reveal how the incidence of the gender pay gap among different religious and social groups changed during the first decade of economic reforms. The presence of substantial wage differentials between men and women workers in the Indian labour market cannot be explained simply by the gender gap of human capital. Discrimination was more severe for women workers in the backward ethnic groups as compared to other women workers.