The Future Ai

This marks a steady progression from earlier decades, with female literacy rising from 30.6% in 1981 to over 70% in recent estimates, though still trailing male literacy levels.At the school level, gender parity has effectively been achieved across primary to higher secondary stages, with girls not only matching, but exceeding boys in enrolment. Under the national education policy (NEP) framework, female enrollment is higher across foundational, preparatory, middle and secondary stages, while adjusted net enrollment rates (ANER) for girls at the secondary level have also overtaken boys in recent years.Dropout rates for both genders have declined between 2022–23 and 2024–25, with sharper reductions at preparatory and middle stages, although secondary-stage dropouts remain comparatively higher.In higher education, the trend is gradually tilting in favor of women. Female GER increased from 28.5% to 30.2%, compared to a smaller rise for males from 28.3% to 28.9% between 2021-22 and 2022-23. Women now account for a marginal majority of total pass-outs, with particularly high representation at advanced levels such as MPhil (76.14%), and over half of undergraduate and postgraduate completions.However, participation remains uneven across disciplines. Women are concentrated in arts, sciences, social sciences and medical streams, while men continue to dominate engineering, technology, IT and management, reflecting persistent segmentation in career pathways.Learning outcomes show a mixed pattern. Girls consistently outperform boys in languages ​​and board examination pass percentages, while boys perform better in mathematics, particularly at higher grades. At the same time, female participation in higher education now spans over half of total enrollments in several disciplines, signaling broader access even as subject choices remain skewed.Despite improvements in access and participation, structural gaps remain. The mean years of schooling for women stands at 7.4 years, compared to an overall average of 8.4 years, indicating earlier drop-off in educational attainment. Spending patterns also reflect disparity, with average annual expenditure higher for boys (Rs 13,901) than for girls (Rs 12,101), pointing to continued differences in investment at household level.