The World Development Report-2012 says, Indian has made rapid progress in improving girls education, lowering fertility levels and increasing assets ownership. The report was released by Rural Development Minister Mr Jairam Ramesh at a function in New Delhi today. It notes that India has achieved close to parity on the number of boys and girls enrolled in primary , secondary and higher level.. Apart from these developments, the world report has expressed concern over the excess female mortality or missing women across the globe. It reports that globally missing girls at birth and excess female mortality after birth account for an estimated 3.9 million women each year in low and middle income countries. The report also called for actions in areas including addressing the issues like excess deaths of girls and women and gender gaps in education, closing earning and productivity gaps between women and men and limiting the perpetuation of gender inequality. The report recommends that the policymakers should focus on the most stubborn gender gaps that rising incomes alone cannot solve.

The report, prepared by the World Bank says that in India and other parts of the world the economic development is not enough to shrink all gender disparities. It expresses the need to correct policies to focus on persisting gender gaps.