Gender parity in Delhi's higher education declined in in 2020-21: Data

The gender parity index in higher education in the national capital declined to 1.04 in 2020-21 from 1.16 in 2018-19, according to data published by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics.

Gender parity index (GPI) is defined as the ratio of number of females to males enrolled in a given stage of education.

The index ideally should be between 0.97 and 1.03, as per the report 'Women and Men in Delhi 2023'.

However, the number of female students per 100 male students in important educational programmes in Delhi has shown a rise.

Comparing the data recorded across various higher education courses in 2012-13 and 2020-21, it was observed that the GPI increased from 0.84 to 0.9 in PhD, 0.73 to 1.02 in postgraduate, 1.03 to 1.11 in undergraduate, 0.51 to 0.73 in PG Diploma and 0.53 to 0.84 in Diploma programme in regular mode of education.

Of the total students in Delhi, around 90.1 per cent opted for general course as compared to technical or professional courses which include 92 per cent males and 88.1 per cent females during 2017-18.

Among the technical or professional courses, medicine was one of the most opted courses in 2017-18 and was particularly opted by females.

"Around 43 per cent of males, 76.8 per cent females and 62.4 per cent persons were pursuing medicine," the report shows.

Furthermore, according to the data, more women than men in the national capital showed interest in teaching, especially at the primary level.

The number of female teachers per 100 male teachers at primary level increased from 363 in 2012-13 to 410 in 2021-22. In the same periods, the number of female teachers per 100 male teachers at the secondary level hiked from 201 to 205 and it rose from 152 to 169 at higher secondary level.

Meanwhile, the average expenditure per student in basic courses in the academic year 2017-18 in Delhi was estimated to be Rs 20,641 for males and Rs 19,093 for females.

For technical and professional courses, the average expenditure estimated during the period per male and female was Rs 97,935 and Rs 69,876, respectively, the data stated.