Towards Skilling Rural Indian Women

Dr Shikha Jyoti Deka

(The writer is an Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Progressive Education Society’s

Modern College of Arts, Science and Commerce (autonomous), Pune. She can be reached at shikha84deka@gmail.com)

Social development and economic growth of a country is heavily reliant on its female labour force. The Indian female demography appears to be moderately empowered, yet are inadequately represented from an employment perspective, despite increasing literacy rate. Intensification in women workforce participation would require increasing employability through technical and vocational education and stimulation in skill-building, particularly for Indian women.

Vocational education and training have great significance in procuring gender equality in skill development and abolishing the matter of educated and uneducated unemployment. Skill building and skill development as a process towards obtaining employment is definitely inadequate in Indian conventional educational system. This inadequacy spells dreadful consequences in case of the group of women who belongs to the economically backward rural part of the country.

According to 2011 Census, nearly 70 per cent of the country’s population lives in rural areas. Notwithstanding, various schemes and programmes run by different ministries towards the furtherance of rural woman’s rights and the existence of provisions like reservations in local governments and Self Help Group (SHGs); there is still wide gender gap in the sphere of economic and employment. As per Census 2011, the workforce participation rate for females is 25.51% against 53.26% for males (Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, 2017). This manifests the continuance of gender lopsided in labour participation in the country. In order to eradicate this asymmetrical the need of the hour is to address the demand and implementation of skill development and training programme for a highly disposed yet enormously untended segment of the society i.e., rural women.

Early marriage has an obstructive consequence on physical development, mental and emotional expansion of girls and limits their education, vocational advancement and employment opportunities. A press release issued by The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) on March 6th, 2018 shows a decline in child marriage rates in India. This depletion is definitely great but at the same time as Anju Malhotra, UNICEF’s principal gender adviser rightly stated, “Given the life-altering impact child marriage has on a young girl’s life, any reduction is welcome news, but we’ve got a long way to go” (UNICEF Press Releases, March 6th, 2018). Early marriage still remains ubiquitous on a large scale in rural areas and has always been an alarming one. Hence, the initiatives for rural women vocational advancement and employment opportunities need to be multifaceted. For example, firstly-educating, rallying and constructing parents and community to delay marriage or prevent this socially normative practice; secondly- empowering girls with knowledge, skills, economic support and incentives; thirdly- ensuring greater commitment on supportive laws and policies.

Education is a paramount appliance for women’s empowerment. Elementary education is indispensable for further skills advancement. Effective education and training enable rural Indian workers to find high paying non-farm employment. Therefore, the need of the hour is to intensify girl’s enrolment in primary and secondary schooling and integrate TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training)-related subjects at the primary level of education. This move definitely stimulates interest among young girls in technical courses.

Withal, provision of educational allowance and reduction in admission standards for female technical education students is certainly another supportive method. Concomitantly, prominence needs to be given on gender neutrality of the educational curriculum with a view to engage both girl and boy in technical fields. More gender-responsive approaches on the part of teachers and trainers are equally noteworthy in this context.

Besides, encouraging women for better roles and enhancing their skills is very crucial with an eye towards shifting them from manual labour to desk-oriented jobs. This can be done by providing technical education keeping in view their culture, local needs and geographical realities.

Forbye, age is a decisive factor when it comes to technical training. Hence, vocational training courses should be planned or conceived as per woman’s age, expertise and interest. The emphasis of the vocational training and close attention should be given on the younger populace. It is observed that the younger demographic belonging to the age group of 18-30 years are vehement, eager and hopeful to any vocational education and training that they might obtain. Concurrently it is perceived that women belonging to the age group of 40-50 years are dispirited or downcast and are themselves not amenable to learn a new skill or occupation. The older group needs to be equipped with required and apropos skills. Even though the older demographic is a little more dubious towards technical occupations, they are still interested in the traditional skills such as knitting, papad manufacturing, crafting spice and masala making, pickle making etc. In order to ensure the fecundity of vocational training programmes, it is also important to consider a few elements such as skill preferences, cultural relatedness with a particular skill, time and money participants can afford to learn a new skill, distance they are willing to travel, languages spoken etc. Additionally, instead of forcefully imposing a shift from conventional to contemporary occupation, it is more important to exploit traditional art and skill. It is more pragmatic to facilitate the skill rather destroying it. For example, the female folk engaged in mekhala-chadar weaving in Assam; the Indian women engaged in crafts of cane and bamboo in Jharkhand; jute producers in West Bengal and Bihar; leather craft production in Madhya Pradesh; the rich tradition of the woodwork in the northern states of India; phulkari embroidery technique in Punjab and Haryana etc. In these cases, the need is to productively intensify and harness women’s skills in order to amplify their dignity and standard of living. Contemporary ideas must be showed pertinent and convenient within the village environs.

There is also a need to expand rural Indian women’s access to mobile phones, computers, technical education, science and other information and communication technologies to promote their ingress in to quality education and training. Vocational and technical training should be complemented with literacy and numeracy training for those rural women who require it the most.

Enormous possibility is witnessed through vocational education and training to advance the present scenario of rural women in India. Here, the real challenge is to evolve customised region specific solutions that take into account various traditional, social, cultural and demographic factors.

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