While the world celebrated International Women’s Day on Monday, gender equality is still a distant dream, as almost half of the adult women are illiterate in the South Asia, says a UN Development Programme (UNDP) report.

What is more disturbing is that the number of adult illiterate women is more than any other region in the world. The gender gap indicators for South Asia are often close to or lower than those in sub-Saharan Africa.

The report says that the economic development has not translated into the empowerment of women in the Asia-Pacific region, adding, “Women in South Asia can expect to live five fewer years than the world average of 70.9 years.”

The missing women also figure prominently in the report. It says that China and India together account for an estimated 85 million of missing women. The report founds that missing women estimated to have died from discriminatory treatment in health care, nutrition access or pure neglect.

The report also found enormous gender disparities in birth statistics in China and India. “The sex ratio at birth is appalling and the gap is widening,” said Anuradha Rajivan, who led the UNDP study. It adds that more women die in childbirth in South Asia – 500 for every 100,000 live births – than anywhere else in the world except sub-Saharan Africa.

The report was released by Helen Clark, administrator of the UNDP.

Despite laws guaranteeing equal pay for equal work, women in Asia-Pacific region still earn considerably less than men. The report suggests that women of the Asia-pacific predominately work in agriculture but they head only 7 percent of farms, compared to 20 percent in most other regions of the world. “The under-representation of women in workforce has severe negative economic implications,” said Clark.

The report also points that the women in Asia-Pacific countries faced discrimination in jobs, access to health care and education, political representation, property ownership and legal rights.

Advancing gender equality is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals agreed by the world in 2000. The report recommended the policy makers to correct gender imbalances by supporting the economic empowerment, promoting political voice and advancing legal rights of women.