Centre for Women’s Development Studies (CWDS), in partnership with UNFPA, had undertaken a desk review of various macro level data sources on women’s status based on select themes.   The selected themes for the study are Health Status; Educational Status; Economic Status; Violence against Women; and Demographic, Social and Political Status.

The objective of this exercise was to document the availability of data on key indicators which can be used to analyse the status of women in India. The study report provides detailed information on key indicators and related data sources, and gives the specificities and limitations of selected sources from a gender perspective in terms of coverage, methods and concepts used. The report also identifies a set of critical indicators for which data are non-existent, inadequate or of poor quality.
Additionally, the report offers guidelines and suggestions for improving the present status of statistics on women and on the possibilities of developing new data collection mechanisms and surveys.