Gender Divides in Indian Education
To take our place as a leading education sector, we need to educate the girls
Women will be key to the growth of India
Whatever way we look at the most pressing challenges of our time, it is clear that improving gender balance, and removing the barriers to women leading empowered lives, is a central part of solving the puzzle. One strength of the New Education Policy (NEP) in India is its understanding of this: considerable weight is placed on improving equity and access for girls - particularly those from socially and economically deprived groups (SEDGs), from whom school and university enrolments are much lower.
The picture is of course mixed. Female enrolments in Higher Education are increasing and the overall ratio of females and males shows year on year improvement, including in scheduled castes and tribes. Nevertheless their remains much for us to do. In this article we explore some of the current data and review some strategies which have worked in other parts of the world to combat the challenge.
The picture today : What the data show us
It is no secret that – as is the case in many other countries – there remains a high-that there is an unacceptable level of discrimination against women. The existing inequalities cast a shadow on many elements of Indian society, and education is no exception.
At the school level, India has made significant progress in terms of gender equality and it is within universities that women remain underrepresented. While the Indian government is making moves to balance gender equality in education and equality indicators are improving, there is still a long way to go.
Thankfully there are a growing number of examples of influential women in India, but on average women miss out on education attainment, employment opportunities and social status compared to their male peers. Even as policy becomes more inclusive of women, traditions and structures slow progress.
Gender school split
Early on in the Indian education system, girls are well represented, according to data from USIDE+. At the primary level, the net enrolment rate of female students is 2 percentage points higher than among male students, 88% and 90% respectively. The figures are similar for secondary school enrolments, if a slightly smaller gap – a net enrolment rate of 66% among male students and 67.5% for female students.
Where the figures begin to look more challenging is in school dropout rates. More girls drop out of primary school than boys – meaning a higher proportion of girls effectively lose their education entirely. However, this is not a key driver in gender disparity higher up in the education system and ultimately in working life. The female primary dropout rate is 3% compared to 2.6% in total. At the secondary level this reverses, and the dropout rate is 1 percentage point higher among boys, at 16% for boys and 15% for girls.
Gender university enrolment split
It is within higher education that the gender inequality begins to show more clearly, though still not immediately. A glance at India’s gross enrolment rate split by gender shows that a higher proportion of women enrol in higher education than men since 2018 (assuming that the trend has continued through 2020 and 2021). The NEP proposes solutions for improving education provision for SEDGs in general, such as ensuring library access in disadvantaged regions.
Source: Government of India Ministry of Education
Government statistics highlight the overall trend, and in doing so hide the disparity specifically within universities. Between 2015/16 and 2019/20, total university enrolments increased by 20%, double the increase in higher education enrolments overall. Female students however only account for 43.3% of university enrolments and this proportion has remained roughly the same over the past five years. While female HE enrolments have increased dramatically, they are not going to university.
One confusing point to keep in mind when considering India’s gender data is the fact that there are fewer girls in education despite relative gender parity. This is because there are fewer girls overall, partially due to India’s high prevalence of female infanticide. While illegal, it still skews the sex ratio at birth to 112 male births for every 100 female births, leaving its mark on enrolment.
The gender parity index measures the proportion of each gender enrolled, meaning that the overall difference between male and female enrolments does not show up. Comparing GPI to the ratio of overall female and male students highlights the difference this makes to the statistics.
Source: Government of India Ministry of Education
Regional differences
Source: Government of India Ministry of Education
For a country as geographically and socially varied as India, it should come as no surprise that enrolment varies greatly across the country. According to the Department of higher education, 21 provinces have a GPI of one or above. Enrolments on the mainland are generally higher in the north with the exceptions of Kerala and Goa. The smallest states tend to have a particularly high GPI.
Interestingly, former Portuguese and French colonies have particularly high GPIs. Goa, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, regions administered by Portugal in the past, are all well above the Indian average of 1.01 - the lowest being Goa at 1.45. The former French colonies of Puducherry also has a notably high GPI.
Ladakh should be treated as an anomaly as the statistics are inconsistent. Alongside its absurdly high GPI, It is the only state to have a 0% dropout rate, according to UDISE+. Ladakh only became a state in 2019, when it became a separate administrative unit from Jammu and Kashmir and the discrepancies could simply be due to data collection not yet being properly established.
Policy and strategies for change
The New Education Policy (NEP) places considerable weight on improving equity and access to education. Gender balance is at the heart of this. It is also clear that countries which are global leaders in education all benefit from a strong focus on equity in their systems, where women enjoy the same access as men.
The NEP proposes solutions for improving education provision for SEDGs in general, such as ensuring library access in disadvantaged regions.
Some other clear strategies include increasing the proportion of women at the top, acting as role models for girls and young women. In Higher Education this matters: the leadership of an institution has a huge impact on culture, and sets the agenda for what direction it takes. A recent report from UNESCO advocates the importance of increasing women leadership. Not so long ago there were fewer than 20 female Vice-Chancellors in India. The figure will be higher now that the sector is expanding fast but in this respect we still lag behind many other countries. The same challenge shows at more junior level in academic teaching – for every 100 male academics in India, there are only 74 women, which is in striking contrast to many OECD countries. Developing female academic careers, and enabling women to influence the agenda of Higher Education institutions, is a key priority.
Broader social challenges exist. The biggest societal gap of course occurs once students graduate, where the overall picture is one of men enjoying consistent access to better paid, higher status and more secure employment. This will take a long time to address at a societal level, but specific initiatives, such as encouraging more girls into STEM disciplines can make a difference. Working with girls during their time at University – encouraging confidence and resilience as they embark on their careers – can also make a significant impact.
It is worth noting in all of this that what we might consider exemplar countries in Higher Education – USA, Germany, UK for example – all have deep structure inequities. Their systems are committed to equality but this is only ever at best imperfectly realised. In essence, we are all on the same journey.