Gender Parity Index in Primary Education in West Bengal

Abstract

In India several education policies have been undertaken to ensure equal opportunities across the gender while determining the educational agenda for primary education. But gender prejudice continues to influence our behavior, choices and life outcomes. Within education, a ‘hidden curriculum’ which is a set of values, attitudes and norms that is implicitly conveyed to students by the teachers' actions and by the organizational processes operating inside schools, helps to spread gender difference. Societal obstacles to female education must be understood as a part of a much larger social framework as traditionally, a boy’s education has been seen as an investment, increasing the earnings and social status of the family while different standards apply for girls. In this paper an effort is made in this connection to make an empirical estimation of the extent of gender disparity and the fall of disparity across the districts of West Bengal during 2001-02 – 2010-11.