Gender Differences among Different Social Groups in West Bengal : A Geographical Study

Abstract

In Indian society, there is a multiplicity of categories such as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have a different status of women. The focus of this study is on the situation of women in different communities; such as, Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and other than SC and ST. According to general consensus, there is a witness of gender inequality of female has taken place in different social groups. The present study deals about gender inequality, which mainly focuses on literacy rate, employment rate among the scheduled groups and others. The entire study is based on secondary data, collected from Census of India, 2011. Total five variables are selected for determine the gender inequality among the districts of the state of West Bengal. To show the gender parity among male and female, Gender Parity Index (GPI) has been used. The overall study discusses on gender inequality in terms of sex ratio, literacy rate, work participation rate, gross enrolment ratio and also study the gender gap among different community. Findings of the study indicate that relative to men, women in their group have more limited of both education and employment performance. The study also reveals that compare to others community; Scheduled communities considered to be less gender inequality in employment and sex ratio in West Bengal.