Districts with more college-educated females show lower infection rate

The higher the level of education, the more shielded the districts are from infections and deaths. The first wave showed a clear trend between education and infection

Last week, a Business Standard analysis pointed out that education had a direct link with vaccination. Districts with higher education levels were more vaccinated than districts where the proportion of people who did not attend school or quit school was higher. Read here
 

While it is difficult to ascertain the reason behind this phenomenon, whether availability or general awareness, further analysis shows that awareness indeed may have had a role to play in districts where infection was kept at bay.

A Business Standard analysis linking education with infection levels across the country finds that education, especially female education, may have helped some districts in keeping a check on the spread of infection. However, there is a caveat. While in the earlier analysis, it was found that any education (school, technical or college) impacted a district's vaccination strategy, in this case, the correlation only holds for college education.

Data shows that between April 16 and May 20, the daily growth rate of cases in more educated districts was higher than the less educated ones. This may indicate the spread of the virus and low awareness of testing. But the college-educated districts highlighted a clear trend. In districts where education levels were more than 3.67 per cent (mean+standard deviation), cases were growing at 1.9 per cent daily, whereas, in districts where education numbers were lower than 3.67 per cent, the growth of cases was higher at 2.16 per cent.

Female college education had a higher impact on curbing infections and districts where the proportion of female college graduates was higher performed much better.

Similarly, while there was no clear correlation between overall education and deaths, female college graduates made all the difference here again. Districts with more female college graduates had daily deaths increasing by 2.05 per cent, whereas districts with lower college education levels had a higher growth rate. Districts with the lowest proportion of college-educated women had an even higher growth rate of 2.34 per cent.

It is unclear why education and infections, or deaths, are not showing any clear correlation in the second wave. An analysis of the first wave of infections shows a clear impact of schooling on Covid-19 infections and deaths. An analysis of data between August 5, 2020, and October 20, 2020, indicated that the growth rate of both infections and deaths was lower in districts with higher education levels across all categories.

One reason for this may be the relaxing of restrictions across India after the first wave and unpreparedness.

However, even without conclusive data during the second wave, a clear trend is that the more educated the women are in districts, the lesser the infection and higher the vaccinations.

The results are not surprising as earlier studies found that social indicators tend to improve when women are more educated.

A clearer picture would emerge after lockdowns are lifted; awareness and social distancing norms would play a critical role in curbing the infections.