1. Girls Education: towards a roadmap Ratna M. Sudarshan, ISST 18 November 2010

2. Expected Outputs Annotated bibliography on girls education in India Research Paper on status and challenges of girls education in India Proposed roadmap for girls education

3. Suggested outline of paper Context: persisting challenges Situating education within the gender equality discourse Girls education: vision for action Policy on girls education/ towards a roadmap Resources, within and outside the education sector

4. Context Overall gender parity index shows considerable progress: 0.94 at primary and 0.92 at upper primary level But data on children out of school (never enrolled + drop outs) shows wide variation by gender, caste, location. (data source used here: EdCil)

5. Social Group Wise children out of school as a % of total children out of school: all India

6. Children OoS as percentage of all children OoS (source: EdCil) MuslimSTSC OBC and other All IndiaMale 4,112,026 25132834 Female 4,038,592 21132937 BiharMale 624,683 2104534 Female 721,014 1415432 DelhiMale 70,663 3602836 Female 53,359 3903031 OrissaMale 206,721 1661023 Female 228,840 175716 RajasthanMale 403,547 5322241 Female 614,779 3192156 Uttar Pradesh Male 1,467,000 3813032 Female 1,302,111 3802635 West BengalMale 378,604 4173121 Female 328,108 2974420

7. Children OoS as %age of all children in that age group and social class: All India

8. Children Out of School as a % of total children in the social group: Rajasthan

9. Children OoS as %age of population 6-14 in social group: Bihar

10. Challenges Persisting systemic biases Understanding the role of the private sector in education Reaching to the most deprived – location, caste, income, gender

11. Education within gender equality discourse, and gender within education discourse Education for women – pre and post Independence Education for social change – Mahila Samakhya Special programmes – KGBV, NPEGEL, training for Muslim girls education However limited linkage between ECCE and schooling; need for broader focus on adolescent girls

12. Vision for Action: what steps can be taken Within education Around education

13. ‘Pressure points’ – hh, school, community No of animals per family, distance to forest, drinking water sources (Vaidyanathan and Nair 2001) Suggestions from consultations – schools and classroom practices, curricula Teacher recruitment, education Incentives eg transport subsidies/ escorts Gender discourse with village groups

14. Roadmap Long term engagement – changing deep seated social norms around gender Linking pre school to school, working with adolescents Learning from innovative models (govt and non govt) Building links across sectors (infrastructure, women and child….) Responding to diversity

15. Thank you