Interdisciplinary Seminar:
Education for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
Convener: Kathy Mumford, Australia

Growth in Education of Women in India with regards to Primary and Secondary Education
Achala Srivastava, Non-member, India

Education of girls is increasingly being seen as a basic human right and a crucial input for national development. Yet gender disparities within the education sector are far from having been overcome. This paper will review the progress of girls’ education in India during pre and post reform periods, with special focus on primary and secondary education. The paper will also examine the gender disparity in primary and secondary education in major Indian States with a view to pinpointing the causes for their poor performance in dealing with this. Some of the important issues that needed attention in this regard will also be included. These are:

• The extent of girl’s access to schooling and how it has changed over time
• Trends and differentials in primary education of girls and boys
• Factors (demographic, socio-economic etc.) influencing primary education of girls
• The constraints (economic, institutional and policy) on achieving gender equality in primary and secondary education.

The paper mainly relies on secondary data sources. It also draws on some of the recent micro and macro studies conducted in India and elsewhere. For statistical analysis it will use some popular statistical technique like regression, correlation, cv. and standard deviation method of indexing and ranking.

Achala Srivastava is a Research Assistant at the Giri Institute of Development Studies, Aliganj, Lucknow. A graduate in Economics from Kumaon University, Nainital, she has recently submitted to Kanpur University her PhD thesis on Socio-Economic Status of Women and Gender Disparity: An Inter-District Study of Uttar Pradesh.