An Analysis of Economic Development in Punjab with Respect to Educated Working Women

Abstract

Education among women sets in motion a virtuous spiral. The females gain greater knowledge, skills, self confidence and capabilities through education. It further leads to improvement in their life prospects that help in providing better nutrition, health care and comforts for her family. An educated female is more likely to have fewer, healthier and better educated children that will turn into adults and hence contribute to economic growth. Female education must be the priority as better educated female can participate more in formal and labour market. But despite progress, women continue to face multiple barriers based on gender and its intersections with other factors like age, ethnicity, poverty and disability in the present scenario of equal enjoyment of the right to quality education. Educating women results in promoting self- respect and also helps in raising the status of women. She gets more aware of her rights as well as her duties. It further adds to her knowledge, values, skills, beliefs and moral habits. So, families should invest more on educating girls as it helps in unleashing her potential. An educated woman is more likely to invest in the next generation. It helps in improving country s social and economic well-being. newlineThe present study relates to the effect of women s education on living standards of their families which ultimately leads to economic development, Here, data has been collected from rural areas of three districts of Punjab i.e. Hoshiarpur, Mansa and Patiala. The districts have been selected on the basis of level of education as per 2011 census. The females were 10+2 passed and they were working either in private or public sector. Further from each district two blocks have been selected according to the literacy level and from each block, two villages with the higher literacy rate and two villages with lower literacy rate are selected. From each village 25 educated women have been taken. In all 100 educated working women from each block were taken which comprised of 20 from SC