A first Haryana has more women than men pursuing higher education according to All-India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE)-2018-19 :

• Haryana, for the first time, has more female students pursuing higher education than male, according to the All-India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE)-2018-19.
• The Ministry of Human Resource Development brings out AISHE report every year.
• Boys, however, continue to outnumber girls at the school level, an indication that a large number of boys quit higher education.
• At the national-level also, there are more male students than females in colleges and universities in 2018-19.
• Haryana has 9.28 lakh students pursuing higher education—diploma, graduation, postgraduation, PG diploma, MPhil and PhD courses. Out of them 4.71 lakh are female (50.77 per cent) and 4.57 lakh male (49.23 per cent). The figure includes both regular and distance education courses.
• According to the 2017-18 AISHE report, 4.67 lakh male and 4.46 lakh female students were pursuing higher education in the state.
• The state has 48 universities, 1,038 colleges. There are 33 colleges per lakh population (18-23 age group) in Haryana, while Himachal has 47 and Punjab 34. The national average is 28.
• In Haryana, there are more women teachers (18,616) in higher education than men (17,061), but not at professor and associate professor level.
• In Chandigarh and Punjab also, there are more women teachers, but not in Himachal Pradesh (HP).

Women Profile in State :

Haryana is a land of paradoxes. On one hand, women are encouraged to play rough contact sport like wrestling, boxing and judo, but on the other hand, they are discouraged from employment, particularly in the formal sector according to UNDP’s state project head. “For many girls and their parents, playing sport is a ticket to government jobs, money and fame.”

Education is a priority for girls and this is reflected in the states’ education indices. This doesn’t translate into jobs because everybody wants a government job and there are simply not enough to go around. After completing an MA or a BA, they are still either not getting jobs or getting offers at very low salaries. Private sector jobs are generally looked down upon as low status jobs – or regarded as temporary jobs.

The abysmal sex ratio of 836 girls for every 1,000 boys at birth among children born in the last five years, according to the National Family Health Survey 2015-’16 – well below the national average of 919 and amongst the worst in the country. In 2015, for instance, Haryana reported the country’s highest number of gang-rapes – 1.6 for every one lakh women – according to National Crime Records Bureau data. It had the second-highest rate of dowry deaths at 1.9 per lakh population and the third-highest rate in stalking women at 2.7 cases per lakh population. Yet, this picture of Haryana as a state hostile to women is only partially true.

On other parameters, the state does well; better than the national average. Female literacy, for instance, at 75.4% is above the national average of 68.4%. And 45.8% of girls in the state have completed more than 10 years of schooling – also above the national average of 35.7%, finds National Family Health Survey 2015-’16.

But, when it comes to employment, the figures falter. Just 17.6% of women in Haryana reported being paid cash for work in the preceding 12 months, below the Indian average of 24.6%, states National Family Health Survey 2015-’16.