Considering the pervasive poverty levels in south Asia, governments of the region and other UN agencies have set poverty reduction as their main agenda for development. Poverty is endemic, especially for groups such as women and the lower castes, that have been, by and large, excluded or are simply added on as afterthoughts to the development process. Poverty, empowerment and status, whether of gender or caste, are interrelated and also have a multi-dimensional nature. Policies and programmes to ensure "mainstreaming" must ensure equality, that is, empowerment and participation in decision-making processes. A first step, however, to monitor and ensure that such programmes and policies are indeed meeting the specified ends of poverty reduction and development, requires the adoption of indicators to measure disparities as well as to make such disparities visible.
