How gender (in)sensitive are the gender-related indices?

of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The brainchild of Mahbub ul Haq, this ground-breaking report challenged the hegemony of develop-ment indices based on variables related to financial management and wealth. The report aimed to highlight the importance of bringing human needs, aspirations and capabilities to the fore-front of all development efforts.The human development index (HDI) captures achieve-ments in basic areas of human wellbeing — leading a long life, being knowledgeable and enjoying a decent standard of living (1). The HDI provides a more comprehensive account of hu-man life than do indices that focus solely on financial areas and treat income as a proxy for standard of living.Despite initial skepticism about the ability of a crude index like the HDI to capture facets of human development and deprivation, the index has received wide attention. It has spawned new indices to measure various social, economic and political features that influence the nature and quality of human life. Prominent among these submeasurements are the gender-related indices.