"4.2.For most countries in Asia and the Pacific, gender disparities are considerable. In all countries of developing Asia, women make up one half to three fourths of the illiterate population, and in South Asia, the literacy rates of females are only one half of those for the males. Despite the biological fact that women tend to live longer than men, developing Asia has more men than women...Gender disparities are also considerable in education. The following table shows that females have inferior educational opportunities to men, and again the situation is particularly bad for South Asia.14"
"The literacy rate for women is uniformly below that for the males, the enrolment rate into primary education is noticeably lower and drop-out rate in secondary and tertiary education is greater."15
4.3. "… [C] hildren under 15 years of age constitute 33% of Asian population at mid 1995; 26% in Eastern Asia; 37% in South Eastern Asia; 38% in South Central Asia. In many Asian countries, the ratio was close to 40% In industrialized regions, the rates were lower: 20% for Europe and 22% for Northern America... The implications for the developing countries of this heavy prepon-
14 Edwards, p.34.
15 Williams, p.5.
