It will only get murkier from now on. The UNESCO report on gender inequality in the world, with India as the star culprit, is just the opening salvo in what is likely to be a pitched battle, not for truth and equality, but for the pocketbooks of those who are not intellectually dishonest, but are rich and white. I get ahead of myself.
First the facts. The UN body in charge of education, UNESCO, reported that not only was there little gender equality in education in the poor world, but also that progress had been slow and hence that the much hyped millennium development goals (MDG) for equal education for boys and girls was unlikely to be reached by 2015. Sorry, this time not me but the UN bodies were ahead of everybody else.
Back to the beginning. In September 2000, the aid agencies of the world, handling close to $ 60 billion in annual aid, met to decide how to help the poor achieve progress for themselves (the quasi-governmental organisation burden). Removal of poverty, health, education, and gender equality was correctly on top of the goal charts.
While everybody else goes around working for a meagre living, the poverty numbers are what grab the most attention of the politicians and the intellectual elites. It suited nobody
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