Initiatives taken by the Govt to promote girls and women education

• As per All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), the overall enrolment of female students in higher education has been consistently increasing over the years.
• The enrolment of females has increased by about 18% from 1.60 crores in 2015-16 to 1.89 crores in 2019-20.
• The international community has recognized the equal right to quality education of everyone and is committed to achieving gender equality in all fields, including education.

Initiatives by the Government to promote education among girls and women:

• Issuing of new UGC regulation for Open and Distance Learning that allows entry of reputed institutions to offer education on the distance mode.
• Use of ICT technology- SWAYAM portal to take the best teaching resources to all, including the most disadvantaged.
• Opening of more centrally funded institutions.
• Encouraging opening of institutions by State Governments through the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA)
• More scholarship programmes to supplement the cost of education.

As per the recommendations of National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, the following steps are being initiated by the Government:

• A Gender Inclusion Fund will be constituted by Government of India to provide quality and equitable education to all girls. The fund will focus on ensuring 100% enrolment of girls in Schooling and a record participation rate in higher education.
• Free hostel facilities will be made available for all women.
• New multi-disciplinary HEIs (including those specially for women) will be opened in or near every district.
• Special scholarships for women/transgender/ divyang will be introduced.
• Guidelines and advisories will be issued and monitoring mechanism will be put in place to ensure basic facilities amenities and safe, secure environment in all HEIs for women.

SWAYAM portal:

• SWAYAM is a programme initiated by Government of India and designed to achieve the three cardinal principles of Education Policy viz., access, equity and quality.
• The objective of this effort is to take the best teaching learning resources to all, including the most disadvantaged.
• SWAYAM seeks to bridge the digital divide for students who have hitherto remained untouched by the digital revolution and have not been able to join the mainstream of the knowledge economy.
• The SWAYAM platform facilitates hosting of all the courses, taught in classrooms from Class 9 till post-graduation to be accessed by anyone, anywhere at any time.

The courses hosted on SWAYAM are in 4 quadrants:

1. video lecture
2. specially prepared reading material that can be downloaded/printed
3. self-assessment tests through tests and quizzes
4. an online discussion forum for clearing the doubts.

Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA):

• RUSA is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (C.S.S.), launched in 2013.
• It aims to achieve equity, access and excellence in higher education.
• The scheme supports components such as upgrading autonomous colleges to universities, clustering colleges to establish a university, setting up of new professional colleges in un-served and underserved areas as well as providing infrastructure grants to universities and colleges to scale up capacity.
• Its vision is to attain higher levels of access, equity and excellence in the State higher education system with greater efficiency, transparency, accountability and responsiveness.