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UNESCO GEM report puts rural India's upper-secondary gender parity at 0.59

By CAShorts DeskPublished Source: Careers360, on UNESCO's report Gender Equity in Access to Education

UNESCO GEM report puts rural India's upper-secondary gender parity at 0.59
Illustration (AI-generated)

A UNESCO Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report study released in October 2026 puts India's gender parity index for upper-secondary completion at 0.89. In rural India it is 0.59, about 59 girls finishing for every 100 boys, while urban girls have reached parity. India is in the 'fast progress' group, having closed over 65% of its gap since 2000.

Syllabus: Prelims · Economy & Social Development; GS1 · Women, Population & Urbanisation; GS2 · Welfare of Vulnerable Sections

Why it matters

A village girl who stops after Class 10 loses the usual route to college, technical courses and salaried work, and a Karnataka trial cited in the report found many girls still at risk of early marriage. India's national index of 0.89 looks close to parity, but the rural 0.59 shows the gap is now mainly rural: urban girls have caught up, rural girls have not. That points attention to what keeps rural girls in school, such as meals, separate toilets and safe access to senior-secondary schools. The warning on parity also matters for reading any such statistic: an index can improve because boys fall behind, not just because girls advance.

Prelims pointers

  • Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report: editorially independent, hosted and published by UNESCO; mandated by the 2015 Incheon Declaration to monitor SDG 4.
  • Sustainable Development Goal 4: inclusive, equitable quality education for all; target 4.1 is completion of free primary and secondary education, target 4.5 ending gender disparities, by 2030.
  • Gender parity index: girls' value divided by boys'; 1 means parity, below 1 favours boys, above 1 favours girls; UNESCO treats 0.97–1.03 as parity.
  • Completion rate (GEM method): share of people three to five years above the official graduation age who reached the last grade of a level.
  • Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009: gives effect to Article 21A (86th Amendment, 2002); free, compulsory education for ages 6 to 14.
  • Samagra Shiksha (2018): Ministry of Education's centrally sponsored scheme merging Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan and Teacher Education; pre-school to Class 12.
  • Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas: residential schools for girls from SC, ST, OBC, minority and BPL families, now part of Samagra Shiksha.
  • National Education Policy, 2020: proposes a Gender-Inclusion Fund for girls and transgender students and Special Education Zones in disadvantaged regions.

Practise a UPSC-style question

With reference to the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, consider the following statements:

1. It is hosted and published by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

2. It monitors progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 4 on inclusive and equitable quality education.

3. It is the successor to the Education for All Global Monitoring Report.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. (a) 1 and 2 only
  2. (b) 2 and 3 only
  3. (c) 1 and 3 only
  4. (d) 1, 2 and 3
Show the answer

Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only

1 is incorrect: the GEM Report is an editorially independent report hosted and published by UNESCO, not UNICEF. 2 is correct: the Incheon Declaration of 2015 gave it the mandate to monitor SDG 4. 3 is correct: it replaced the Education for All Global Monitoring Report and has carried its present name since 2016.

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