Kvanderveur

Relationship of female education and socioeconomic factors in India

Communities throughout India can be used as valuable case studies to illustrate the complex relationship between education and socioeconomic systems. There are many social factors that have prevented women from education throughout India, including traditional conservative thinking, early marriage, child labor, and structural and institutional factors. This can be seen in the gender disparity in literacy throughout the country, as men are 80.9% literate and women are 64.6% literate. While India as a whole seems to prove the theory that a lack of female education is a barrier to economic development, an inside look at education and socioeconomics between states shows a more complex relationship. Comparison of states can also illustrate the complexity in education being both a cause and effect of social and economic factors.

The state with the highest rate of female literacy, at 91.98%, is the southern state of Kerala. 26.9% of female students in Kerala are likely to pursue higher education, while men are less likely at 19.3%. The state’s GDP is ranked 11th out of all Indian states. The extremely high female literacy rate, especially when compared to the national rate of female literacy at 65.46% , is attributed to a historical, societal value of women compared to other Indian states. Female education is claimed to have taken value through the guiding of western evangelism influence brought to Kerala and it’s value on female education. This can be seen in comparative women participation and some autonomy in academia and the arts, playing roles in politics, administration, festivals, and social reform. Women have the power to inherit land and choose their spouse, which provides Kerala with one of the lowest early marriage rates in India. The strongest connection between educational impact on social systems is the low fertility rate in Kerala, achieving “below replacement level fertility two decades ahead of the all-India target year of 2011.” Explanations of this connection are speculated to be educated women having more opportunities that demand more time than a women can handle with more children, and educated women having more knowledge, access, and choice in family planning devices like contraceptives.  The state also demonstrates low infant and child mortality rates, the lowest in all of India—a universal indicator of educational impact—as women feel more confident and able in their child’s care and is more aware of health practices.

Boys and girls at a school in Rajasthan.

The state with the lowest female literacy is the state of Rajasthan, at 52.66%. 20.8% of male students in Rajasthan go on to pursue higher education, while a lesser 14.9% of women seek further education. The complexity in the comparison of Kerala and Rajasthan is seen in the higher ranking of Rajasthan in terms of GDP, ranked 9th highest out of all of the Indian states, with Kerala at 11th. Although Kerala's female literacy rates and female higher education applicants far exceed Rajasthan's, Rajasthan's GDP is ranked higher. This shows regional contradictions in the theory that increases in female education can drive development and exposes the complexity of this discourse. The low rates of female literacy in Rajasthan are caused by a much more conservative culture and a historically muslim influence that doesn’t value females, let alone their education. Evidence of this is seen in the sex ratio of Rajasthan, with 800-900 females per 1000 males, while the sex ratio of Kerala is over 1000 females per 1000 males, which shows a higher value placed in females. Traditionally valued female child labor in Rajasthan has lead to high student drop outs, especially in the cotton industry, and child marriage is still an issue in-of-itself that leaves females less likely to attend school. Another economic cause of this low literacy is the many children throughout Rajasthan without access to education and communities that don’t value education due to poor facilities. Paradoxically, while child labor is the largest contribution to keeping children out of school in Rajasthan, improved access to and condition of educational facilities could in help break the vicious cycle of poverty that is attached to child labor. Societal value of females, ending child labor and improving educational facilities are keys in Rajasthan’s improvement in female and male literacy and poverty rates.