Girls’ Enrolment Statistics at Secondary Level in Punjab: How Do Inequalities Widen Across the Grades?

The role of education must largely be to maintain a society of equals, which gives access, fairness and opportunities for all. However, despite the various measures undertaken by the Indian government and local bodies to reduce the inequality in education between genders, castes, classes and religions, this inequality persists (Vaid, 2019). Unfortunately, there are glaring regional, caste and gender inequalities in literacy status and access to education at all levels. The current paper tries to examine the girls' enrolment statistics in Punjab at secondary schools in terms of social category, especially Dalit girls who are living in rural areas. This paper analyses the enrolment trends of girls by using data from secondary sources, namely, census reports, statistical abstracts, economic surveys, district diaries, reports of MHRD, Planning Commission, etc. Intersectional analyses highlight that girls from lower castes face triple disadvantages: locale, gendered norms and caste-based marginalization. Thus, the analysis of all these education growth parameters demands far more serious policy attention to improve the status of rural girls and Punjab has to travel a long journey to bridge caste and gender barriers in literacy and school enrolment gaps.