What explains the gender divide among teachers in India's higher education?

Of the teachers in India's higher education ecosystem, 58 per cent are male; Bihar has the most skewed gender balance

As India honours its teachers today, Business Standard draws on the data released recently by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to explore the demographic profile of teachers in India.

Of the roughly 1.2 million teachers involved with higher education in India in 2017-18, 58 per cent were male and 42 per cent female. While a marked gender variation exists across states, a disaggregated analysis shows that Bihar fares the worst gender proportion among all states. The female-to-male teacher ratio is estimated at 1:4 in Bihar, which is followed by Uttar Pradesh, with only 32.8 per cent female teachers.

At another end of the spectrum are states like Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Delhi and Goa with more female teachers than male.

Studies have pointed out that non-availability of female teachers is one of the major reasons for children dropping out of schools, so correcting this skew might help reduce the dropout rates.

These estimates are based on data gathered through the teacher information format (TIF) for the year 2017-18 which collected information on 1.2 million teachers across the country.

A majority of teachers surveyed are at the level of assistant professors followed by associate professors. However, the female-to-male teacher ratio is worse for these levels.

The number of female teachers per 100 male teachers was estimated at 37 for the professor and equivalent category, 58 for the reader and associate professor group, and 74 for the lecturer/assistant professor category. It was relatively high for the temporary teacher (101) category.

A breakdown of teachers by social group reveals that at the all-India level more than half the teachers belong to the general category (56.8 per cent of total), followed by other backward classes (OBCs) at 32.3 per cent, while scheduled castes and scheduled tribes account for only 8.6 per cent and 2.27 per cent, respectively. State-wise disaggregated data show that Tamil Nadu had the highest proportion of OBC teachers, at 72.2 per cent. It was followed by Telangana at 44.3 per cent, Kerala (37.4 per cent) and Karnataka (36.1 per cent).

The data also show that there has been a steady improvement in the pupil-teacher ratio in India in almost every level of education since the beginning of this decade.

Take the case of primary school education, for instance. For this category, the pupil-teacher ratio was estimated at 43 in 2000-01. There was no improvement in this ratio at the end of the decade. But by 2015-16, it had declined to 23.

Similarly, in the case of secondary education, the pupil-teacher ratio fell only marginally from 38 in 2000-01 to 33 in 2010-11. However, over the next five years, it fell to 17. The only exception is the senior secondary level, where one observes a worsening of the pupil-teacher ratio.

But, notwithstanding this improvement, India continues to fare poorly when compared with other emerging and developing economies. For instance, in the case of primary school education, the pupil-teacher ratio was estimated at 16.3 for China, 20.9 for Brazil and 19.8 for Russia. India was only marginally better than Sri Lanka, where the ratio was estimated at 23.2 in 2015-16.