(a) whether the percentage of rural students in the vocational, university and
technical educational institutions in the country is very low;
(b) if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor; and
(c) the steps taken/proposed to be taken by the Government in this regard?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(Dr. SHASHI THAROOR)
(a) & (b): Data on Rural students is not maintained by the Ministry. However,
as per the 2010-11 data 36.1% of universities and 54.3% of colleges are located
in the Rural areas. Also, a total of 66.1% Technical colleges and 62.6% polytechnics
are located in rural area.
(c): The Government has recently launched the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan
(RUSA), which seeks to address  inter-alia, the issue of access, especially in the
rural and backward areas of the country. Under RUSA, the States/UTs are required to
prepare perspective plans and include identified unserved and underserved areas in
the State. The States/UTs also are expected to make use of specific RUSA components
such as the vocationalisation of higher education, the setting up of new professional
and technical colleges and the creation of new universities by way of upgradation of
autonomous colleges and by clustering colleges.