When we talk about sustainability, many concepts emerge like poverty, hunger, food security, clean water, sanitation and many more. Whole world is working on all these indicators to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). In reference to SDG 5, sustainability is not possible without development of all three genders viz male, female and third gender. But amongst all, female gender is specific because of women’s head count, which says that half of the world population is Women. But the paradox is, that they are the worst sufferers of violence. Consequently, how can any planner think of sustainability without giving social justice to WOMEN? One of the key causes of this is women’s educational inequalities, whose remedy lies in SDG 4 i.e., Quality Education. This education will help in their development specially in the context of justice and empowerment. Education is followed by literacy, as a social measurement tool. Improvement in literacy will lead to educational development which with its multiplier effect will check many of the issues and concerns among women. These social indicators are important to see as they reflect actual face of different geographical locations of the world, like South Asian countries carry very low value in various social developmental parameters, Gender Inequality Index (2014) gives it 0.536 value whereas Human Development Index (2014) shows 0.607. In reference to all this paper offers a window into a study on status of literacy among women of South Asian Countries. It is a general review paper which takes various international and national agencies as the source of information. Readers and Developmentalists would benefit from this understanding as it carries various complexities of issues, data analysis and diversity of views.
Key words: Sustainable Development Goals, gender, social justice, literacy, social developmental parameters.