Himachal Pradesh (HP) has the second highest gross enrolment ratio (GER) in higher education among Scheduled Tribe (ST) women in the country. Moreover, it has been rising over the years.

GER in higher education is calculated as total enrolment in higher education, irrespective of age, expressed as a percentage to the eligible official population in age group 18 to 23.

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As per information revealed by All India Survey of Higher Education (AISHE)-2017-18 last week, the GER among ST women in Himachal is 40.6 per cent. It was 38.3 per cent in 2016-17 and 32.7 per cent in 2015-16.

AISHE is conducted under Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). The number of institutions, teachers and students has been recorded on the basis of their actual number as on 30 September 2017 for AISHE 2017-18.

Uttarakhand has the highest GER among ST women at 42.5 per cent, followed by Himachal Pradesh. At third place is Sikkim at 39 per cent. The all India figure of GER of ST women is just 14.9 per cent. Female GER in SC category in HP is at 30.4 per cent, which is lower than that of ST women.

The GER of females among all categories in HP is 42.2 per cent and is the fifth highest in the country. It was 40.7per cent in AISHE-2016-17 and 35.5 per cent in AISHE-2015-16.

Only, Chandigarh with 67.7 per cent, Tamil Nadu at 48.2 per cent, Puducherry with 48.1 per cent and Delhi scoring 48 per cent are ahead of HP.
The all India figure of female GER is 25.4 per cent.

Punjab has female GER at 33.6 per cent, Haryana has 30.7 per cent and Jammu and Kashmir is at 29 per cent.

The overall GER in HP of both males and females is 37.9 per cent. In this category too, Chandigarh leads in the country at 56.4 per cent. Punjab has 30.3 per cent, Haryana has 28.7 per cent and J&K has 27.7 per cent.

Enrollment in higher education HP has 1.28 lakh males enrolled in all higher education courses while 1.47 lakh are women. So, out of a total of 2.75 lakh enrolled till 30 September 2017, majority are women at 53.5 per cent.

In Post Graduate courses excluding MPhil, out of a total of 32,161, over 53 per cent are women (17,158).

In undergraduate courses, 1.18 lakh women had enrolled (53.7 per cent), out of a total of 2.20 lakh.

However, in Ph.D., majority is of males. Out of a total of 1,700 students enrolled for PhD in last year, 794 are females, which amounts to 46.7 per cent.