An Investigation into the Gender-Gap in Higher Education in Districts of West Bengal

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22023818

Malay Das (Department of Economics, Naba Barrackpur Prafulla Chandra Mahavidyalaya, Kolkata, West Bengal)

Available evidences suggest that with the increase in socio-economic development the extent of differences in the levels of social and human development also tend to increase at the sub-national level in India. Over the decades, despite the improvement in socio-economic development across the states of India, the state of West Bengal remains to be at the bottom line of social and human development. Using the data from 2011 census of India, this paper assessed the extent of gender-gap in the level of higher education in districts of West Bengal. Results showed that the females in all the districts of West Bengal were lagged behind in terms of higher education, compared to their male counterpart. Even considerable gaps in this dimension between males and females continued to exist in all the districts of this state. Moreover, the gap in this dimension between males and females was found to be higher in urban parts of all the districts, as compared to rural parts of all the districts in this state. Particularly, agriculturally advanced and more urbanized districts (such as Barddhaman, Bankura, Birbhum, Dakshin Dinajpur, North 24-Parganas, Puruliya, & Koch Bihar) were found have higher differences in the level of higher education between males and females; female graduates being in disadvantageous position. Government and political intervention in promoting girls towards higher education may be influential for reducing the gender-gap in higher education in the districts where females were lagged behind in terms of education.