If development is not engendered, it is endangered.

WRITE IN

90 min

1,000–1,200 words

☆ Save ✎ Write this essay

Join daily PYQ on Telegram ↗

Reading the topic

Engendered here means gender-sensitive: development that includes women as equal participants and beneficiaries. The topic warns that growth which ignores half the population is fragile; the examiner expects an argument linking gender equality to economic growth, human development and social stability, not just women's welfare.

ThesisDevelopment that leaves women out wastes half a nation's talent and breeds deprivation, so gender equality is a condition of lasting development, not a by-product.

Dimensions to cover

1Economy: low female labour participation keeps output below potential, so excluding women directly slows growth
2Health and demography: skewed sex ratios and poor maternal nutrition damage the next generation's health and productivity
3Governance: women leaders in local bodies tend to prioritise water, health and schools, showing how inclusion changes development priorities
4Finance and livelihood: self-help groups have brought women into credit and enterprise, strengthening household and village resilience
5Budgeting: gender budgeting forces ministries to show how spending reaches women, institutionalising engendered planning
6Social security: violence and unsafe public spaces reduce women's mobility and work, making safety a development issue

Counter-view

Some argue growth first lifts everyone and gender gaps close automatically. The essay should show that India's rising incomes coexisted with falling female job participation for years, proving gender gaps need deliberate policy

Open and close

Open: Open with a village where a new road brought a market, but the women still walk two hours for water because no woman sat in the meeting that chose where the road went
Close: Conclude that development becomes secure only when women design it, work in it and share its gains equally

Where marks usually go

Reading engendered as 'created' instead of 'gender-sensitive', which derails the whole essay
Listing women's schemes rather than proving the link between gender and development
Ignoring men's role and treating gender as a women-only issue

Examples that fit

ThinkerAmartya Sen's essay estimating that over 100 million women were 'missing' due to neglect showed how development can coexist with deadly gender bias.Amartya Sen, 'More Than 100 Million Women Are Missing', New York Review of Books, 1990
CaseKerala's Kudumbashree, started in 1998, organised women's neighbourhood groups for credit and enterprise, linking women's agency to poverty reduction.Kudumbashree State Poverty Eradication Mission, Government of Kerala
DataMcKinsey Global Institute estimated in 2015 that advancing women's equality could add trillions of dollars to global GDP, with large potential gains for India.McKinsey Global Institute, The Power of Parity, 2015
CaseThe Union Budget has carried a Gender Budget Statement since 2005-06, tracking allocations that benefit women.Union Budget documents, Ministry of Finance
HistoryThe Beijing Platform for Action of 1995 made gender mainstreaming a global development norm.UN Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 1995