The learning curve: Why college education for women matters

News: NITI Aayog released the first state-wise National Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), inline with the global index released by the United Nations each year.

The report has found that a quarter of the population in the country was multi-dimensionally poor or deprived on at least a few of the 12 counts.

How access to various services varies with female education?

Female college education plays a significant role in ensuring access to services:

On Adequate Nutrition – In districts where college-educated females were higher than 2.2% of the population, around 30% of the households were deprived of adequate nutrition.

– In contrast, in districts where college-educated females were less than 2.2%, 42.3% of the people lacked adequate nutrition.

On years of schooling – In districts where college-educated females were lower than 2.2%, 18% of households were deprived. In contrast, the corresponding it is just 8.4% for districts that had more then 2.2% college-educated females.

On electricity access – In districts where college-educated females were lower than 2.2%, had 15.9% of households deprived of electric supply. In contrast, only 5.2% of the households in higher female-educated districts lacked electricity.

– Availability of ‘bank accounts’ and ‘drinking water‘ were the only two indicators where college education played no role in determining access to resources.

Source: This post is based on the article “The learning curve: Why college education for women matters” published in Business Standard on 6th Dec 2021.