WOMEN ACCESS TO EDUCATION, TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT

‘You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women' - Jawaharlal Nehru The Indian government has expressed a strong commitment towards education for all, however, India still has one of the lowest female literacy rates in Asia. Keeping in view the above saying, the paper examines the issue of women's access to education in India. Drawing on existing literature and various statistics concerning women's education, the paper provides an overview of the state of education with respect to women and highlights some of the issues and barriers to women's education. Based on an analysis of emergent issues, some recommendations and suggestions are offered in terms of grassroots level interventions, strategic initiatives and enabling policy framework, towards improving women's access to education. In this way, my focus in the paper would be on proper implementation of the National Policy on Education, which was updated in 1992, and the 1992 Program of Action both reaffirmed the government's commitment to improving literacy levels, by providing special attention to girls and children from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.