Gender Equality in Education in India - Gaps and Way Forward

There has been a significant improvement of literacy levels and more specifically for the girls, including the participation of females at all levels of education i.e. primary, upper primary, secondary, higher secondary and higher education in India. Female participation at school level has exceeded the male participation. However, at higher education level female enrolment is behind the male enrolment. Further, in Institutions of National Importance (INIs) and all professional courses except medical sciences, male participation is still dominant. The current article aims to find out the status of gender equality at all levels of education in India. Further, it brings out the existing gaps and also suggests the way forward for bridging that gap. The paper has tried to ascertain the conceptual framework of gender equality in education. Efforts have been made to collect evidences from educational data available in public domain at various platforms of national agencies/departments. A suitable analysis and logical conclusions have been drawn for suggesting the way forward. This article will be crucial for students, researchers, academicians as well as policy makers for making them aware about the current status of gender equality in education, for taking informed decisions in that matter.