Policies, Progress, and Gaps
An overview of gender & inclusion focussed schemes in India's Early Education Ecosystem
State of Girls’ Education in India
In a truly fair world, every child, regardless of their identity markers, would have access to quality education that empowers them, unlocks their full potential, and paves the way for endless opportunities. And while, as society we are trying to get there, glaring gaps exist. While the learning gaps widen as we go down the socio-economic ladder starting from the earliest of years of a child’s learning journey, the gap is exacerbated if one is a girl in a low-income family where the intersection of gender and socioeconomic status comes into play. This limits their early development, making it harder for them to finish school, build strong relationships, and contribute to society productively.1
According to The World Bank, unchecked gender biases have far-reaching consequences and could cost the world $160 trillion in lost GDP2, making gender equality an economic necessity. Yet, despite its economic importance, India’s cultural preference for sons has long set the rhythm, dictating steps before the first heartbeat is even heard. As per the study done by Saikia et al. (2021), published in The Lancet Global Health, despite national laws prohibiting fetal sex selection, an estimated 13.5 million Indian girls have gone “missing” (i.e. prevented from being born) due to sex selective abortions during 1987-20163. Girls who are born have been provided with fewer resources for human capital development as compared with boys, for e.g., they are vaccinated at lower rates, breastfed for a shorter duration, and given less childcare time than boys4. This disparity is also evident in the higher enrolment of boys in private schools driven by the perception that these institutions offer better quality education, including higher teacher attendance, and the use of English as the medium of instruction5, ultimately preparing and positioning boys to become the primary breadwinners and decision-makers in the future.
A study analysing data from the National Family Health Survey (2019-2021) found that girls aged two to four were 9.3-16.7% less likely to be enrolled in private preschools compared to boys6. This consistent underinvestment in girls’ education, starting from the earliest years of a girl’s life, is both caused by and leads to inequities in intra-household and labour market outcomes. Consequently, as per the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) (2023-2024), the labor force participation rate for Indian females is only 41.7%, while males participate at a rate of 78.8%, highlighting a significant gender gap7. This gap reinforces the cycle of poverty and entrenches gender inequality, limiting personal and professional opportunities for half the population, resulting in the underutilisation of India’s demographic dividend.8
The Current Landscape: Existing Policies and Schemes to Eradicate Gender Inequality in Education
Gender equality in education is vital for sustainable, resilient, and inclusive development, yet systemic discrimination continues to limit opportunities and hinder progress for millions9. Being cognisant of the gender disparities starting from womb to adulthood, there have been conscious efforts by the government to address gender inequality, starting from schemes to improve the sex ratio at birth to increase enrolment rates in secondary education.
How Early Gaps Lead to Lifelong Inequality
Despite significant progress in reaching gender parity in school enrollment, challenges remain. According to the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) data, the average dropout rate for girls in primary school (Grades 1-5) is 1.4%. At the upper primary level (Grades 6-8), the dropout rate for girls is 3.3% compared to 2.7% for boys, and at the secondary level (Grades 9-10), the dropout rate for girls is 13.7% in 2020-21.10
Additionally, they are less confident than boys, even at an early age, as evidenced by their responses to assessment questions. On average, the no-response rate was 8.7% among boys and 13.3% among girls.11
The weak foundation laid in early years coupled with societal prejudices, such as the prevalence of early marriage in many communities, disproportionately impacts adolescent girls. These challenges hinder their ability to continue education, triggering a cascading effect on their health, economic prospects, and overall quality of life. These inequities not only affect learning outcomes but also academic choices, discouraging girls from pursuing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields12. As a result, women in India hold only 15% of senior STEM positions, compared to the global average of 28%13.
The broader economic picture is equally concerning, with India ranking among the lowest in terms of economic parity, as women earn only 39.8% of what men earn. That means for every Rs. 100 a man earns, a woman earns just Rs. 4014.
The World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Report 2024 further underscores how, with the current pace of progress, India would need another 134 years to achieve full gender parity15. An acceleration is therefore needed to create and leverage existing policies that incentivise women's workforce participation while actively dismantling gender stereotypes at the stage when they are being formed, allowing stakeholders to take a preventive approach rather than curative to gender inequality.
Why Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) is Key
Given the critical role of ECCE in laying the foundation for lifelong learning and development, it is essential to recognise that learning does not happen in school alone. Children are constantly learning wherever they are. For young children, who are forming over a million neuronal connections per second at an unparalleled rate of growth never seen after this age, home and community serve as equally vital spaces for learning alongside schools and early learning centers16. However, the burden of childcare disproportionately falls on women, limiting their participation in the workforce. Therefore, strengthening ECCE policies and implementing a robust National Creche Scheme are crucial to ensuring both high-quality early learning opportunities for children and greater economic opportunities for women.
Beyond this, as highlighted in our previous article, children also assimilate gender stereotypes about each other's gender as early as two to three years of age, with the perception of intelligence about one's gender being solidified before the age of six. For example, in our field research at Anganwadi Centres, children were quick to sort professions into stereotypes, assigning teaching and housework to women and choosing men as doctors, shopkeepers and office workers. This early formation of gender identity and stereotypes is later reflected in schools, where they are often reinforced, mirroring broader social structures and legacies of structural oppression, affecting their self-perception, aspirations, and overall life outcomes.
This makes it imperative for countries like India to focus on policies that intervene at this crucial stage to deliver gender-transformative early childhood education and ensure that childcare responsibilities do not hinder women's workforce participation.
Government Policies: Progress and Gaps
The National Education Policy (NEP), 2020
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recognises early childhood education (ECE) as the bedrock of a child’s educational journey, emphasizing the need for a cohesive, inclusive, and high-quality ECE system. Beyond improving access and quality, NEP 2020 also seeks to eliminate gender discrimination, close the gender gap, and boost female literacy rates to drive women's empowerment.
To achieve this, the policy introduces initiatives like the 'Gender Inclusion Fund' (GIF), designed to build national capacity for equitable and quality education, particularly for girls and transgender students. This initiative presents an opportunity to make ECE gender transformative and mainstream gender considerations in planning and budgeting.
While the policy does lay emphasis on gender sensitisation by training teachers, it can also be extended to curriculum adaptation to facilitate learning through play and other activities free of gender bias. This could involve:
Identifying gender stereotypes in class materials
Using gender-transformative play and learning materials
Featuring women and men in the same professional roles, and showcasing them as heroes and problem solvers17.
Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi (Nutrition and Education Together)
With the contours of the Indian education sector changing before our eyes, the recent launches of the National Taskforce Report on ECCE, along with the inclusion of Poshan Bhi, Padhai Bhi (Nutrition and Education Together) as a program under Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0, ECCE has finally gaining the visibility it deserves. Central to this momentum is the ambitious Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi (PBPB) program, which aims to revolutionise Anganwadi Centers into vibrant learning hubs. Coupled with the groundbreaking National Curriculum for ECCE, these efforts represent a pivotal shift towards providing equitable, high-quality early education by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
This backdrop provides a unique opportunity to embed gender-transformative thinking into curricula and implementation modalities across States. This can be achieved by building the capacity of primary caregivers to act as agents of change, enabling a conducive and equitable learning environment for all children, regardless of their identity markers.
India, as a nation committed to the 2030 Agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals and its promise to 'leave no one behind,' should leverage existing programs and policies to address gender inequalities from an early age.
Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter)
In a deeply community-driven country like India, Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) mass campaigns have been powerful tools for driving large-scale behavior change, particularly through Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) approaches. Initiatives like the Polio Eradication Campaign and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan have successfully mobilised millions. With over 1.2 billion mobile connections and 462 million active internet users in rural India18, digital platforms now offer an unprecedented opportunity to scale future campaigns, ensuring deeper and sustained engagement at the grassroots level.
Building on the success of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) in engaging families with young children, the next step should focus on promoting gender equality from birth, ensuring that both girls and boys are treated equally in early childhood. The emphasis should be on equal access to quality education, making girls' education a societal norm. Community-level workers, such as Anganwadi workers, who have strong ties with local families, can play a crucial role as champions for this campaign. Showcasing women from the community in non-traditional professions, while fostering mothers’ agency, and encouraging fathers to take ownership of responsive caregiving can drive social behavior change.
With the ECCE system undergoing major reforms, now is the ideal moment to transform government daycare centers into dynamic, gender-transformative learning environments. The Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi initiative, which provides close to Rs. 900 Crore funding for Anganwadi worker training and teacher learning materials over three years, offers a unique opportunity to integrate gender-transformative teaching practices, ensuring that every child, regardless of gender, reaches their full potential. Additionally, to monitor the progress of girls’ enrollment, participation, and learning outcomes, India can unlock strategic funding and partner with Civil Society Organizations to launch the country’s first sex-disaggregated survey on ECCE programs to bridge the data void and provide course-correcting strategies to policymakers.
The National Creche Scheme
The care economy is inherently gendered, with women disproportionately expected to take on domestic chores and caregiving responsibilities compared to their male peers. According to the Periodic Labour Force Study (2021-2022) between 40-48% of women in India cited childcare or homemaking as the reason for not even looking for work19. These deep-seated norms also impede girls’ education, as they are often burdened with caring for younger siblings and managing household chores, leading to higher dropout rates.
The situation is exacerbated for women in the informal sector, who must juggle caregiving and earning a livelihood, compromising both the mother’s ability to provide appropriate childcare and her capacity to earn a livelihood that supports a better-resourced upbringing for her family. The National Creche Scheme (PALNA) highlights this gap, serving 39,000 children nationwide through 2,163 operational creches, a fraction of what is needed20. To address this, the government's mandate to upgrade selected Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) into Anganwadis-cum-creches is a step in the right direction to optimise resources, build parental confidence, and ensure children's safety.
To further move the needle on integrating gender transformative practices from the very beginning of the life cycle, creche workers can be equipped with the knowledge and tools to enable gender transformative care where both boys and girls receive equal opportunities for early stimulation and development.
With female under-nutrition plaguing several other development dimensions for women and girls like female school achievement, income-generational abilities, and disease survival potential (WHO, 2022)21, its effects extend beyond individuals. To address this, India must adopt a preventative approach, recognising that ensuring gender-equitable care and nutrition from infancy is critical to breaking the cycle of malnutrition and anemia among girls. By integrating nutritional equity training within creche workers' modules can help caregivers recognise and address gender biases in feeding practices22.
Strong childcare services catering to children aged 0-3 will not only enable women to enter the workforce but will also enable ECCE policies to prioritise early cognitive stimulation along with nutrition. During this critical window, children develop the skills they need to become well-functioning adults, making the period between birth and three years of age crucial23. Therefore, by building salience around this realm through its integration into existing policies, building a robust monitoring and evaluation system, and unlocking increased government spending, India can ensure that early childhood development is given the priority it desperately warrants.
From Policy to Impact: Next Steps for Gender-Transformative ECCE
By institutionalising gender equality in ECCE, India can rewrite societal scripts, paving the way for a more inclusive and equitable future. This can be achieved by:
Establishing a Gender Equality in Early Childhood Care and Education Task Force to drive systemic change. This would enable nationwide curriculum audits to identify and remove gender biases, develop structured gender-sensitivity training for educators to help them challenge stereotypes, and break traditional gender norms. Additionally, this would also allow stakeholders to make data-driven policy decisions, supported by strong monitoring systems that reflect cross-sectoral interdependencies and stakeholder intersectionality, and track progress in achieving gender-equitable learning outcomes
Expanding childcare infrastructure to reduce the gender burden and reimagine the world’s largest daycare network as a powerhouse that harnesses the Triple Dividend of Childcare: improved child learning outcomes that translate into higher productivity, freed-up mothers who can re-enter the workforce, and diversified employment opportunities for caretakers as educators.
Building on the momentum of existing policies that have played a crucial role in allocating resources, setting educational standards, and ensuring effective program implementation for vulnerable populations to create a country where every child has an equal chance to reach their full potential.
Conclusion: Investing in Girls’ Early Education is Key to India’s Growth
Investment in girls’ education is linked to a wide variety of societal benefits, including improved health, greater equity, and economic development24. While India has made strides in the right direction in school enrollment, more investment and policy discourse are required to prioritise girls’ access to quality early education which will prevent biases from taking hold and build a more equitable foundation from the start.
A more deliberate policy approach backed by increased funding and expert-led support is essential to integrating gender-transformative strategies into ECCE frameworks, building salience for investment in high-quality early education for girls, and developing robust monitoring and evaluation systems. As India stands on the cusp of its demographic dividend, with over 50% of the population being women, investing in girls’ early education is not just a necessity but a moral imperative to collectively contribute to India’s aspiration of becoming a $5 trillion economy.
Edited by Sanjana Manaktala (National Initiatives & Policy Lead at Rocket Learning) and Apurva Desai (Communications Lead at Rocket Learning)