Gender Inequality In Afghanistan

In contrast to developed countries, the women of developing countries who head households have more obstructions in obtaining resources and services in housing and agriculture. They have less access to land, credits, capital and jobs with good incomes. Such in Afghanistan, it is often undesirable and not possible for women to admit to maintaining a household alone. Afghan women are socially ostracised and has to go through many deprivation to fulfil their daily needs. In India, the status of women are precarious and low-ranked. Meanwhile in Iran, recorded in their 1991 population census, out of all 10.8 million registered household, only 6% of it are headed by women. From this 6%, 80% of them are widows and a small portion of 26% are literate.

The attempts and need to measure human development and poverty had been long initiated. The development of HDIs however was the first attempt to make a yearly index of human development with a broader approach to development than just measuring it in terms of the economy. It is widely seen as the first serious attempt to incorporate a social dimension other than economic growth in measuring development. Studies concentrating on female poverty have given rise to policy recommendations that there should be poverty-alleviation or employment-generation programs designed specifically for women or that households maintained by women alone be targeted for social

The provision of credit, especially micro-credit, has become a very popular and successful strategy for poverty eradication. According to the United Nations Development Programme's Poverty Report 1998, at present some 10 million women around the world are reached by systems of small loans. One of the most successful project is the Grameen Bank founded in Bangladesh. The Grameen Bank is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning microfinance organization and community development bank. Micro-credit loans are based on the concept that the poor have skills that are under-utilized and, with incentive, they can earn more money. A group-based credit approach is applied to use peer-pressure within a group to ensure the borrowers follow through and conduct their financial affairs with discipline, ensuring repayment and allowing the borrowers to develop good credit standing. By the beginning of 2005, the bank had loaned over USD 4.7 billion and by the end of 2008, USD 7.6 billion to the poor. The Bank continues to expand across the nation. By 2006, Grameen Bank branches numbered over 2,100. Its success has inspired similar projects in more than 40 countries around the world, including a World Bank initiative to finance Grameen-type