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27Th July 2016
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Girl
Students (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)
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While more young women are enrolled in higher
education than ever before -- and apparently more successful in clearing
10th-standard board exams than young men -- they are either marrying early or
not finding or not looking for jobs, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of
various data.
The enrolment of girls in higher education
increased from 39% to 46% from 2007 to 2014, but female participation in
India's labour force declined to a low of 27% in 2014 from 34% in 1999,
according to a 2015 study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
Almost 12 million women are enrolled in
undergraduate courses, but few continue to professional courses; 600,000 women
were enrolled for diploma courses in 2013, the latest year for which data is
available. Even fewer women -- only 40% -- sign on for PhDs.
In 2016, girls were more successful than boys
in clearing the 10th-standard exams of a national education board, a trend that
has held over seven years.
While 428,443 girls appeared for the
10th-standard exams of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), 379,523
were successful -- a pass percentage of 88.5, according to CBSE data. By
comparison, 564,213 boys wrote the exams and 444,832 were successful -- a pass
percentage of 79.
Pressure to marry early continues
So, what happens to these girls after the
board exams?
The CBSE is one of many boards nationwide,
but the trend of girls overtaking boys is probably being repeated elsewhere.
What could be responsible for the trend reversing itself in higher education
and young women not making it to the job market is the push to get married.
Although the median age of marriage has
increased, it continues to be low: 19.2 for women in 2011 (up from 18.2 in
2001), according to 2011 Census data. Men got married, on average, at 23.5 in
2011, up from 22.6 in 2001.
The enrolment in higher education has been
estimated to be 33.3 million, of which 17.9 million were male and 15.4 million
female in 2014-15, according to the All India Survey on Higher Education,
released by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in 2015. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
Young women accounted for 46% of the total
enrolment in higher education, an improvement from 44.3% in 2012-13.
The gross enrolment ratio (GER, the number of
college students in the 18-23 age group as a proportion of all young men and
women in that age group) in higher education in India was 23.6 in 2014-15, up
from 20.8 in 2012-13. This is lower than the global average of 27 and lower
than other emerging economies such as China (26) and Brazil (36), according to
data released by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
While the GER for young men was 24.5, that
for young women was 22.7 in 2014-15, an improvement from 17.9 in 2012-13.
The number of young men enrolled for higher
education increased 13 per cent to 17.9 million in 2014-15, from 15.8 million
in 2012-13. The number of young women enrolled increased 21% to 15.3 million
from 12.6 million.
After graduation, numbers of men increase,
women decrease
The highest concentration of women is seen
among undergraduates, at 12.4 million, followed by 1.9 million for
post-graduation. Only 0.6 million girls are enrolled for diploma courses.
As many as 14 million boys are enrolled in
undergraduate courses (almost 17.5% higher than girls), followed by
post-graduation (1.8 million, or 6.1% lower than girls) and graduate diploma
courses (1.6 million, 61% higher than girls).
The trend of more young men than women is
evident at almost every level after high school, except M.Phil, post-graduate
and certificate courses, where female enrolment is slightly higher than male
enrolment. Post-graduate courses have 49% males and 51% females, according to
the data released by Ministry of Human Resource Development.
Women tend to focus on the humanities, with
38% of all women enrolled in Bachelor of Arts courses, followed by science and
commerce; 28% of men enrol for BA courses. When it comes bachelors of
education, women (2.8%) once again outnumber men (1.8%). The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
Up to 8% of all young men sign up for
bachelor's courses in engineering, nearly double of women (4.1%). There is a
similar skew for male (9%) and female (4.5%) in bachelors' technology courses.
Women dwindling in workforce, despite rising
female enrolment in higher education
When the gender parity index -- or GPI, the
ratio of female students to male students -- in higher education rises, it
should lead to higher female labour force participation rates, typically measured
as the share of women employed or seeking work as a share of the working-age
female population.
In addition to raising labour input, the
resulting human-capital accumulation should boost potential output, according
to a 2015 study by the IMF. But the percentage of women in India's workforce is
declining, as IndiaSpend reported in March 2015. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
India's female labour force participation has
dropped from 35% in 1991 to 27% in 2014, a rate below the global average of
around 50% and the East Asian average of around 63%, according to a 2015 IMF
study.
As incomes rise, women's labour force
participation often falls, only to rise again when female education levels
improve; consequently, the value of women in the labour market increases, the
IMF study said. That is not happening in India.The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
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