India: ‘Gender gap report would end up spreading misandry’

Article here. Excerpt:

'Nagpur: The annual gender gap report of World Economic Forum (WEF) has received flak from men's rights activists in the country who believe that it is biased towards women. They say the report is drafted in a way that would end up spreading misandry by blaming men for social issues caused due to poverty and bad governance, while completely ignoring various issues they face.

In the report, India ranked 114 among 142 countries, slipping from 101 last year. The ranking was given on the basis of factors like economic participation, health, educational attainment and political empowerment of women in society. Terming the report one-sided and unscientific, men's right activists said it not only openly acknowledges measuring gender gap only in one direction (for women), but also celebrates gender inequalities suffered by men.

For example, a country with more girls enrolled in schools gets the same rank as the one with equal enrolment of the two genders. "Lower enrolment of boys can be a disadvantage to them. Also, the phenomenon of more suicides by men than women is also considered as gender equality. Such a definition of gender equality is completely bogus and unacceptable," said Anil Kumar, founder member of Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF) who is a social researcher himself.'