Gender inequality is on the rise in India, according to a new report. Women struggle to gain access to health care, education, and work. The annual Gender Gap Index shows India falling to 114th place, down 13 positions since last year.

As CCTV America’s Ravinder Bawa reports, experts are worried that India will not be able to meet the the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

India’s government acknowledged that India’s slide of 13 positions in the Gender Gap Index in the last year was unfortunate, but said it believed that new approaches can mend ways. But when education, health care, and work opportunities are denied to women, the reasons why go beyond the failure to implement government policy.

“It is deep-rooted patriarchy and the way the women are looked at as weaker sex,” said Lalitha Kumaramangalam, the chairperson of National Commission for Women. “The mothers themselves are discriminating against the girl child.”

Adding to societal pressures, the government fails in its role to promote gender equality. Perhaps ironically, India tops the list of countries with women as head of state over the last 50 years. And politically, it ranks higher than the U.S. and U.K. in terms of women participation in government. Yet still, the female ministers and parliamentarians have not been able to make a difference to the overall situation of women in India.

For more on the gender gap, CCTV America spoke with Kelly Powers. She’s an attorney who focuses on cases involving international and domestic family law.