A Discourse on Gender Disparity : A Study on Taluks of Belagavi District Manjunatha

The modern period witnessed the increased gender disparity reflected in sex-ratio, literacy and education, employment and wage-rates and several other sociocultural and behavioral indicators of empowerment.(Nangia, 2005)Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenges of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance -Kofi Annan(Personal, Archive, Mahanta, & Nayak, 2013).The present paper examines the extent of gender disparity in Belagavi District based on literacy and sex ratio using secondary data. We found that literacy rate in study area was 76.93 % in 2001 which is increased to 82.90 % in 2011 and sex ratio in the study area was 960 in 2001 which is increased to 973 in 2011. There are wide disparities from Rural to Urban sex ratio as well as Rural to Urban literacy rate. The urban sex ratio is higher than rural sex ratio in study area. The Rural sex ratio is 970 and urban sex ratio is 979 females per thousand males in the 2011. We found that in Belagavi district, there is reduction in gender disparities from 2001 to 2011 but the reduction rate is very slow.


INTRODUCTION
Belagavi district is located in the north-western part of the Karnataka state (Fig. 1), nestling high in the Western Ghats. It extends over an area of 13,379 Sq. Km which is 6.99 percent of the total geographical area of the state. The district is between 400-900 m above mean sea level. It measures about 160 Km from north to south and 80-130 Km from east to west. The total population of Belagavi district is 47, 79,661 it is almost equal to Singapore population. (Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India, 2011).The Average literacy rate of Belagavi district (73.48%) is lower than the average literacy rate of Karnataka state literacy rate (75.60%)("Primary Census Abstract Total Table For India," n.d.). The average sex ratio of Belagavi district is 973females per 1000 males is almost equal to the sex ratio of Karnataka state (973).Current study focused on taluk wise gender disparities in literacy and sex ratio of Belagavi district and study attempts to analyze taluk wise gender disparities in literacy and sex ratio of Belagavi District.

II. OBJECTIVES
The main aim of this study is to analyze taluk wise gender disparities in literacy and sex ratio of Belagavi during 2001 to 2011.

III. STUDY AREA
The study area of this paper is a part of Karnataka.

IV. DATABASE AND METHODOLOGY
The present research work is based on secondary data obtained from district census handbook of Belagavi

Chart 1: Disparity of male and Female Literacy in Belagavi District
Data sources: calculated by using data taken from the population censuses

VI. DISPARITY IN SEX RATIO OF BELAGAVIDISTRICT
Sex ratio is one of the important demographic factors that indicate the status of women in a particular society. A social system with higher sex ratio itself    According to 2011 census the maximum sex ratio is recorded in Hukkeri taluk (991), while, minimum sex ratio is recorded in Athanitaluk (958). The rural sex ratio in 2011 it is recorded maximum in Hukkerirtaluk (991) and minimum in Athanitaluk (955). The urban sex ratio in 2011 it is recorded highest in Ramdurgtaluk (1006) and minimum in Raibagtaluk (961).
The urban sex ratio shows positive change inBailhongal(1005),Ramdurg (1006) and Savadatti(1002).The positive improvement in sex ratio is actually an indication of a decrease in female foeticide in urban taluks.

VII. GENDER DISPARITY IN PRIMARY SCHOOL
With regard to educational indicators in primary, secondary and tertiary level rural India is lagging behind urban India. The Right to Education Act (RTE) passed in August 2009 has committed the Government of India to the provision of free and compulsory education to all Indian children (Das & Pathak, 2012). Attendance of girls is more than boy's attendance ratio.The net attendance rate in higher primary schools is 76.88% while Boys attendance ratio is 77.94% and Girls attendance ratio is 76.57%. Attendance of girls is less than boy's attendance ratio. The girl's attendance of lower primary school is low in Raibag taluk; interestingly Raibag taluk achieves 100% attendance in higher primary school during 2012 and 2013. Similarly the girl's attendance of higher primary school is low in Gokak taluk (74.01%) and high in Raibag taluk (100%). Some studies cited the reasons for the low attendance rate are familial commitment, migration, climate induced disasters, famine and poverty led the girl children to abandon schools.

CONCLUSION
The spatial variation of literacy in Belagavi district shows a wide gap of 17.62% literacy from male to female. The minimum male literacy is in Raibag taluk 75.53% and maximum in Belagavi taluk 89.63%. There was observed that the minimum female literacy was 54.94% in Ramdurg taluk to a maximum of 77.54% in Belagavi taluk. It shows that there are wide disparities from the male-female literacy rates. It is, however, encouraging to note that sex disparity in literacy in the district has been gradually decreasing during the last decades. This is the indicative of increasing spread of female education in different taluks of Belagavi district. Further studies of disparity in literacy and sex ratio are under progress in our research work.