Economic empowerment of women through skill development: A case study of support to training and employment programme (STEP)

Economic empowerment of women is a critical input in the development process of any country. With wider gender disparities in education levels, economic participation of women needs special efforts. Government of India has introduced several policies and programmes for economic participation of women. Support to Training and Employment Programme (STEP) is one such programme with an objective of providing skills to women for their gainful employment. The present study makes an attempt to analyze public expenditure on STEP, inter-state disparities in women's participation in STEP and the linkages between literacy, participation in STEP and work participation of women at macro level. The analysis did not show any significant relationship between the literacy status and participation in STEP across different states.