PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA: AN ANALYSIS

Abstract

The status of women in higher education in India has been steadily improving over the years. While there are still challenges such as disparities in enrollment rates. Access to resources and representation in certain fields, efforts have been made to address these issues through policies promoting gender equality, scholarships and initiatives to encourage more women to pursue higher education. Despite these challenges, there has been a significant increase in the number of women enrolling in colleges, universities across various disciplines, indicating progress in this area. In this paper, an attempt is made to assess the status of women in the area of higher education in India from 2015-2021. This paper is based on the secondary data collected from various sources like AISHE, Statistical abstract of Punjab etc. Findings showed that the percentage share of male enrollment is high as compared to female enrollment in GER except the year 2021-22. In Phd, MPhil, PG, Graduation, Diploma and Integrated courses the enrollment of the male has declined throughout the study period whereas the female enrollment increased in the entire stream except PG Diploma and Certificates courses. Study found that in 2020-21, male percentage is high in professional and technical programmers like B.Tech, M.Tech etc whereas enrollment of female is high in Arts, B.Ed and nursing courses, Science, M.A. and M.Com. At the end, it is suggested that awareness regarding women education must be spread in rural area to ensure them to right to food, shelter, health, education and employment. They must be motivated to go professional and technical education also for self employment purpose.