Gender and education: status and challenges to attaining gender parity in basic education in India
Gender and education: status and challenges to attaining gender parity in basic education in India
Modern education emerges as a force as well as a focus within a wide-ranging discussion on socio-economic andcultural transformation across nation-states. Maturing from agrarian to industrial economy, education is perceived as a tool foraccessing “cognitive resources” (Inglehart & Welzel, 2005, p. 151), i.e. basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills are part ofeveryday life and the knowledge of these aspects enhances individuals’ capability to gather and process information. Therefore, itis established in the scholarship that education affects larger social and cultural change—such as, gender equality (ILO, 2009;World Bank, 2012), health improvement, and increasing political participation (Inglehart & Welzel, 2005).The sphere of education, however, has been shaped by the traditional norms of society, such as patriarchy. Earlier, althougheducation was a tool for better economic opportunity, it was largely limited to men. In a way, limitation of educationalopportunities only to men further widened the gender disparity. For instance, gender difference in educational attainmentbetween women and men explain gender inequality in the arena of employment. Among other factors, gendered gap ineducational attainment explains wage differences between men and women (cf. ILO, 2009). Inspired by the literature on globaltransformation this essay attempts to present the status and reasons of gender disparity in basic education in India. The term basiceducation includes first seven years of schooling.The essay is structured into three sections. First section discusses multi-layered gender disparity in basic education in India. Two keyaspects of discussion are the trends in basic education in India and the effect of varied level of social stratification on the level ofliteracy. After demonstrating the gender disparity among social groups, the second section addresses the issue of the need forattaining gender parity in education. This section indicates how basic education is inextricably linked to the key aspects—basichuman and legal rights, political empowerment and power of decision-making—of attaining gender parity with specific reference toIndia. The final section extracts key points of the essay and suggests few challenges to attaining gender parity in basic education
123-129
Gupta, Achala
a30fa79d-e9dc-4237-93d4-bdaf8816780a
4 October 2015
Gupta, Achala
a30fa79d-e9dc-4237-93d4-bdaf8816780a
Gupta, Achala
(2015)
Gender and education: status and challenges to attaining gender parity in basic education in India.
In,
Education as a basic right to humankind : International Gandhi Jayanti Conference 2015.
International Gandhi Jayanti Conference 2015 on Education as a Basic Right of Humankind (03/10/15 - 04/10/15)
New Delhi.
Indialogue Foundation, .
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Book Section
Abstract
Modern education emerges as a force as well as a focus within a wide-ranging discussion on socio-economic andcultural transformation across nation-states. Maturing from agrarian to industrial economy, education is perceived as a tool foraccessing “cognitive resources” (Inglehart & Welzel, 2005, p. 151), i.e. basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills are part ofeveryday life and the knowledge of these aspects enhances individuals’ capability to gather and process information. Therefore, itis established in the scholarship that education affects larger social and cultural change—such as, gender equality (ILO, 2009;World Bank, 2012), health improvement, and increasing political participation (Inglehart & Welzel, 2005).The sphere of education, however, has been shaped by the traditional norms of society, such as patriarchy. Earlier, althougheducation was a tool for better economic opportunity, it was largely limited to men. In a way, limitation of educationalopportunities only to men further widened the gender disparity. For instance, gender difference in educational attainmentbetween women and men explain gender inequality in the arena of employment. Among other factors, gendered gap ineducational attainment explains wage differences between men and women (cf. ILO, 2009). Inspired by the literature on globaltransformation this essay attempts to present the status and reasons of gender disparity in basic education in India. The term basiceducation includes first seven years of schooling.The essay is structured into three sections. First section discusses multi-layered gender disparity in basic education in India. Two keyaspects of discussion are the trends in basic education in India and the effect of varied level of social stratification on the level ofliteracy. After demonstrating the gender disparity among social groups, the second section addresses the issue of the need forattaining gender parity in education. This section indicates how basic education is inextricably linked to the key aspects—basichuman and legal rights, political empowerment and power of decision-making—of attaining gender parity with specific reference toIndia. The final section extracts key points of the essay and suggests few challenges to attaining gender parity in basic education
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Published date: 4 October 2015
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International Gandhi Jayanti Conference 2015 on Education as a Basic Right of Humankind, , New Delhhi, India, 2015-10-03 - 2015-10-04
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Local EPrints ID: 473074
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/473074
PURE UUID: ad9700ac-cf2e-40dc-a325-602dda5cb9cb
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Date deposited: 10 Jan 2023 17:38
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:07
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