Srinagar, Nov 7: In J&K, shockingly, only 9 percent of women aged 25 and above have completed education beyond Grade 12, compared to 14 percent of men.
The figures place J&K in the mid-lower tier among states and union territories.
The data, part of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2022-23, shows serious regional and gender disparities in higher education attainment across India.
It highlights challenges in access to education after secondary school, including diplomas, graduate degrees, and postgraduate programmes.
States like Kerala with better development indices, lead with rates nearly three times higher than J&K.
Higher education is defined as any formal learning after Grade 12: nationally, just over one in 10 adults completes this level.
In Kerala, nearly one in four adults has higher education.
However, in some states like Assam, one in 20 people have higher education.
In J&K, there is a 5-percentage-point difference between the higher education attainment of women and men, with substantially fewer women completing the degrees and diplomas they register for.
For men, the attainment is at 14 percent, slightly above the national average.
The AISHE 2024 shows the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of 27.2 percent for women in J&K.
However, this survey measures current enrolment in higher education institutions.
This shows that while many women do enroll, very few complete the education.
However, the low percentage of higher education attainment among women limits economic opportunities for them in a scenario where employment is already difficult to come by.
J&K outperforms Bihar (women 5 percent, men 12 percent) and Jharkhand (women 6 percent, men 13 percent), but falls short of Himachal Pradesh (estimated women 20 percent, men 21 percent) and Haryana (women 16 percent, men 17 percent).
The gender and regional gaps underline the need for targeted policies to expand access and support the completion of education for women in need of financial support.
According to many studies dissecting the reasons for women to drop out of higher education, the need for women to financially support their families, marriage, and lack of safe transport, boarding, and lodging have been found to be important variables.
J&K performs better on literacy parameters.
According to the Census 2011, the female literacy rate in J&K is nearly 57 percent, and the male literacy rate is 77 percent.
The percentage is likely to have increased over the decades.
Although J&K has invested heavily in education infrastructure, opening up many colleges across districts, the benefits do not seem to trickle down to the grassroots.
Stakeholders believe researching the causes behind the drop-out rates could help address the issue.
