(a) whether the Government has any mechanism to examine reasons for low participation of girls in education and suggest ways to reduce gender disparity to achieve better gender parity index in the country;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the current status of enrolment of girls across the country at primary, upper primary, secondary education and senior secondary levels are well below the stipulated standards; and
(d) if so, the details thereof?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(SHRI UPENDRA KUSHWAHA)
(a) and (b): Annual school based information is compiled through Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE). UDISE collects data on all important aspects of a school including gender wise enrolment. This data is used for monitoring and planning mid course corrections if any.
Besides, Digital Gender Atlas for advancing the girls education has been developed by Department of School Education & Literacy to identify the low performing geographic pockets for girls, particularly from marginalised groups such as scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and Muslim minorities, on specific gender related education indicators.
All the States and UTs have been mapped in the Digital Gender Atlas. The States have been using it as a planning tool to come up with strategies for inputs for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) annual plans.
Every year, the States and UTs prepare their annual plans based on the data as per UDISE. Based on this basic planning the gender parity index has improved over the years as follows:-
Gender Parity Index
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GPI Primary Upper Primary Secondary
2005-06 0.92 0.84 0.88 (in 2009-10)
2015-16 0.93 0.95 1.02
Source: As per U DISE
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(c) and (d): The current status of enrolment of girls across the country at primary level is 48.21%, at upper primary level is 48.63% and at secondary level is 80.7%. This compares well with the percentage of girls population (6-10 yrs) i.e., 47.75% and 47.77% (11-13 yrs) level as per Census 2011.
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