Challenges women currently face in developing countries

Women's Issues

Women's Education in India

The Indian government has expressed a commitment towards education for all in their country and yet India still has one of the lowest female literacy rates in Asia. In 1991 only about 40% of the 330 million women aged 7 and over were literate. This low level of literacy has a negative impact on women's lives, their families' lives and on their country's economic development. Numerous studies have shown that illiterate women have high levels of fertility and mortality, poor nutritional status, low earning potential, and little autonomy within the household. A woman's lack of education moreover has a negative impact on the health and well being of her children. In addition, the lack of an educated population can be an obstacle to the country's economic development (Velkoff, 1998).

Women make up almost half of the population in the world. The dominating masculine ideology around the world has made them suffer a lot as they have been denied equal opportunities. The rise of feminist ideas has led to the tremendous improvement of women's condition through out the world in recent times. Gaining access to education has been one of the most pressing demands of many women's rights movements. Women's education in India has also been a major concern of both the government and civil society as educated women can play a very important role in the development of the country (Women's Education in India, n.d.).

In the Vedic period women had access to education in India, although they had gradually lost this right over the years. During the British period there was revival of interest in women's education in India. Throughout this period, various socio religious movements emphasized women's education in India. There were several leaders of the lower castes in India who took various initiatives to make education available to the women of India. Women's education got a boost after the country got independence in 1947 with the government taking various measures to provide education to all Indian women. Because of this the women's literacy rate has grown over the three decades and the growth of female literacy has in fact been higher than that of male literacy rate. While in 1971 only 22% of Indian women were literate, by the end of 2001 54.16% female were literate. The growth of female literacy rate is 14.87% as compared to 11.72% of that of male literacy rate (Women's Education in India, n.d.).

Women's education in India has played a very important role in the overall development of the country. It has not only helped in the development of half of the human resources, but in improving the quality of life both inside and outside the home. Educated women tend to promote education of their girl children while providing better guidance to all their children. Furthermore educated women can also help in the reduction of infant mortality rate and growth of the population. Gender discrimination is still a major problem in India and lot more needs to be done in the field of women's education in India. The gap between the males and females in literacy rate is just a simple indicator of the problems that abound. Current prejudices, low enrollment of girl child in the schools, engagements of girl children in domestic works and high drop out rate are major obstacles in the path of making all Indian women educated (Women's Education in India, n.d.).