Women Education in India: Current Status, Recent Initiatives and Future Prospects

One of thefactors a country's economic depends on is human capital. Ifyou don'tprovide women with adequate access to EDUCATION,healthcare and employment,you lose at least half ofyourpotential. So, gender equality and women empowerment bring hues economic benefit- Michelle Bachelet, President of ChileEducation is the one and most powerful instrument of social change and social development. Every and all sectors of social development is largely depends on its human capitals. As an independent group in India, women constitute nearly (48.72%) of the total population. They not only constitute valuable human resources of the country but their development in the education and socio-economic arena also set pace for sustainable growth of the economy. If the society neglect or not nurture properly of the women population, the complete development of the society remain dream forever. Therefore, the education of the women in India plays a significant role in improving the living standard in the country. A higher women literacy rate improve the quality oflife both at home and outside home, by encouraging and promoting education of children, especially female children and in reduce the infant mortality rate and so on.In spite of the forceful intervention by a bastion of female privilege, feminist critics, constitutional guarantees, protecting laws and sincere efforts by the state governments and central government through various schemes and programmes over the last 69 years and above all, the United Nation's enormous pressure with regard to the uplift of the plight of women in terms of education is still in the state of an enigma in India for several reasons. The 2011 Census report indicates that literacy among the women as only 65.46 percent. It is virtually disheartening to observe that the literacy rate of women in India is even much lower to the National average, i.e., 74.04. The growth of women's education in rural areas is very slow. This obviously means that still large womenfolk of our country are still illiterate, the weak, backward and exploited. Moreover education is also not available to all equally. Gender inequality is reinforced in education which is proved by the fact that the literacy rate for the women is only 65.46% against82.14 of men as per (Census, 2011).During the post-independence period literacy rate have shown a substantial increase in general. However the literacy rate of male has almost over tripled over the period, e.g., 24.9 in 1951 and 82.14 in 2011. Surprisingly the female literacy rate has increased at a faster pace than the male literacy during post-independence period. The growth is almost 9 times, e.g.,7.9 % in 1951 and 65.46 % in 2011. From this analysis one can infer that still the female literacy rate is wadding behind male literacy rate (35% of women still are far from education). This higher rate of illiteracy of women is undoubtedly attributing for women dependence on men and to play a subordinate role. The lack of education is the root cause of women's exploitation and negligence.The root causes of women illiteracy in IndiaWomen education is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. No single factor or cause can be held sole responsible for very low literacy rate of women in India. Subsequently it is associated with combination of many factors including social, economic, political, religious, cultural, educational, demographical, and administrative and so on. The following are the some of the important factors which could be attributed for the present literacy status of women in India.* Poverty: The Cause of all causes is poverty. In many poverty stricken families, children especially girls are considered as economic assets as they bring income for livelihood as well to save from economic crises of the family. The resources of the poor families are so limited that they do not have anything to spare for the education of their children. If there are resources available it the boy who is sent the school first. …