ÁREAS SILVESTRES PROTEGIDAS

The intrinsic linkage between education and empowerment is a universally accepted and undisputable fact of our social existence. Education is perceived to be an indispensable agent of social change and a harbinger of empowerment. The Constitution of India very pragmatically mandates the Indian state to undertake special measures for the promotion of education in general and for the females in particular. It is interesting to note that the Indian Constitution maintains a threefold distribution of subjects under which Education has been placed in the Concurrent List, thereby enabling both the central and the provincial governments to enact and execute laws and policies for the optimum development of educational opportunities and standards. Yet a cursory look at the data shows that access to education remains an unfulfilled goal. Since this chapter is primarily focused on bringing

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out the gendered disparities in educational opportunities in India, I will limit myself here to those aspects only.

Female Literacy Rate in Percentage of Population

Census Year Person Males Females Gendered Gaps

1951 18.33 27.16 8.86 18.30 1961 28.30 40.40 15.35 25.05 1971 24.35 45.96 21.97 23.98 1981 43.57 56.38 29.76 26.62 1991 52.21 64.13 39.29 24.84 2001 65.38 75.85 54.16 21.70 2011 74.04 82.14 65.46 16.68

Source: Census of India 201148

The ever-rising gaps in male and female literacy rates in India are quite evident from the data sourced from the government agencies (as above). India commenced its developmental journey with a gap of 18.30 percent and it is surprising to note that despite the welfarist orientations of successive political regimes, the gaps have consistently been maintaining an upward swing. While it is apparent that the gendered gaps have reduced in the aftermath of the initiation of economic reforms in 1991, however, the rate at which they have been reducing is depressing to say the least. Equally interesting is to note is the way in which literacy has been officially defined in India. The Indian State defines effective literacy in the most basic of manners as the ability of any person in the age group of seven and above to read and write in any language as literate (COI 2011:98). Even by those standards, female literacy rates have consistently been lagging behind that of the males by almost 20 percentage points in the period between 1991-2001 and by almost 16 percentage points in the following decade i.e. 2001-2011.

48 _{Available online http://censusindia.gov.in/2011-prov-}

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I have already argued in the introductory part of this chapter that the initiation of economic reforms in India certainly resulted in some palpable gains for women as citizens. This is very evident in the rise of female literacy rates. For instance, in the period between 1990-2001 and 2001-2011 there is a marked jump of almost 15 percent, in women‘s literacy rate (almost double the average of 8 percent in the two-three decades preceding the initiation of reforms. Per the Census Report 2011 (COI 2011: 100) of the 217,700,941 additional people who became literates in the period between 2001-2011, the number of females (110, 069, and 001) outnumbered the males (107, 631, and 940). The decadal increase in the number of literate males was 31.98 percent whilst the corresponding increase in the females was 49.10 percentages - a clear example of the decreasing gender gap in the post reforms period (ibid).

School Enrolment and Literacy Percentage in Gendered Terms

Year Primary (I-V) Middle/Upper Primary (VI-VIII) Higher/Secondary (IX-XII)

Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls

1970/71 35.7 21.3 9.4 3.9 5.7 1.9 1980/81 45.3 28.5 13.9 6.8 7.6 3.4 1990/91 57.0 40.4 21.5 12.5 12.8 6.3 1991-92 58.06 42.3 22.0 13.6 13.5 6.9 1992-93 57.9 41.7 21.02 12.9 13.6 6.9 1993-94 55.1 41.9 20.6 13.5 13.2 7.5 1994-95 60.1 45.1 22.1 14.5 14.2 7.9 1995-96 60.6 46.2 22.7 14.8 14.6 8.3 1996-97 62.5 47.9 24.7 16.3 17.2 9.8 1997-98 61.2 47.5 27.7 15.8 17.1 10.2 1999-2000 64.1 49.5 25.1 17.0 17.2 11.0 2000/2001 64.0 49.8 25.3 22.0 16.9 10.7 2007/2008 71.5 64.8 30.7 26.1 15.9 12.3 2014/2015 67.6 62.8 34. 5 32. 6 12.4 11.6

Source: Selected Educational Statistics (2008, 2011 and 2016), Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India and Department of Education, Planning, Monitoring and statistics Division, Government of India

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Some initiatives by the Government like the declaration of the right to education of children in the age group 06-14 as a fundamental right under the 86th _{Constitutional Amendment Act}

and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan – a scheme targeted towards providing free and compulsory elementary education to all, especially to the girl child in disadvantaged rural areas - may have contributed to the improved data on the female literacy. Yet an interpretation of the data itself very clearly brings to the fore the point that the gains have neither been rapid nor have kept pace with the ever increasing population. For example, a comparative assessment of intra levels of enrollment (between primary and secondary levels) shows a significant drop in terms of the initial enrollments at the primary levels and secondary/higher secondary levels. Whilst such a drop in terms of percentage point averaged around 6 to 7 percent in the 1970s and 1980s, it is surprising to note that despite claims of increased enrollment at the primary levels, the drop at the secondary/higher secondary levels have been widening. Let me explain this further.

Whilst in the pre-economic reforms period say in the 1970s the percentage female enrollment at the primary levels and secondary/higher secondary levels stood at 23.3 and 1.9 respectively implying a drop of 21.4 percentage points. In the 1980s, it stood at 28.5 and 3.4 accounting for a drop of 25.1 percent. In the post-liberalization i.e. in the post 1991 period even though the primary and higher secondary enrollment rates went up to 62.8 and 11.6 in the year 2014-15, the rise has not been matched by a proportionate increase in the enrollment percentage at secondary/higher secondary levels. On the contrary, the drop rates have gone-up by a whopping 51.2 percent. Whilst an average Indian female is said to receive only 1.2 years of schooling, an average Indian male receives almost 3.5 years of school education (Kaushik 2007:14).

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A range of factors can be thought about as plausible factors for the sordid state of female literacy in India. These include: widespread regional disparities; excessive and unyielding curriculum; lack of basic infrastructural facilities in educational institutions; lack of true and genuine teachers/mentors; and the disconnect between education and existing patriarchal social norms and values – that is, a fear that education might result in non-conformism to traditional norms. Additionally, the widespread employment of women as child labour (especially from the weaker and marginalized sections) has been a massive factor.