c. CE 201 - More than 100 Million Women are Missing by Amartya Sen
Channel: Ishan Marvel
Date: 2020-09-29

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTSoWRKkWJTYMu6FhrV9JzlNVJaRU4HeI
Amartya Sen (1933-Present)
* Born at Shantiniketan and apparently named 'Amartya' by Rabindranath Tagore.
* PhD at Cambridge. First appointment at 23, as Professor and Head of Department of Economics at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Also taught at Harvard, Cambridge, DSE, LSE, Oxford, etc.
* Won the Nobel in 1998 for contributions to welfare economics and his interest in the problems of society's poorest.
* Awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1999.

More than 100 Million Women are Missing
Extracted from a longer article by the same name, published in New York Review of Books in 1990.

* Raises the issue of women's inequality in terms of higher mortality rate. For instance, developed nations like Japan and those in Europe and North America tend to have a higher female ratio (106 women to every 100 men, i.e. 1.06) compared to most of Asia, North Africa and Latin America (94 women to every 100 men, i.e. 0.94).
* Among other things, Sen accounts the positive female ratio in developed nations to the fact that women are biologically stronger (resistant to disease, longer life span, etc.) and so, if women are ideally provided the same nutrition and healthcare as men, they will outlast their male counterparts, as seen in developed nations. 
* Thus, if one were to take this ideal scenario and apply the resulting benchmark ratio of 1.05 to the entire world, there would be around a 100 million more women than the actual number. Therefore, Sen argues that there are more than 100 million women missing.
* Sen also describes how the debate cannot simply be reduced to cultural difference 
of 'East-West' or stages of economic development in terms of 'developed-developing'. Rather, a complex interaction of economic, social and cultural factors influences the value of women, their nutritition and healthcare in a given society.

* How to improve status of women and female mortality rate: Equal opportunities and gainful employment outside the home, so that women have their own economic resources.
* Such exposure and empowerment can then help change socio-cultural aspects like traditional beliefs and behaviours.
* Also, half of the population that is otherwise only engaged in household work (counted as non-economic, i.e. not part of GDP, etc.) may then also benefit the overall productivity of the society and nation as a whole.