Skip to main content

Gujarat's 8% females employable; it's 31% in Rajasthan, 17% in West Bengal, 15% in UP: GoI-supported, CII-backed report

A new Government of India (GoI)-supported report, prepared by Wheebox, an online talent assessment company, in alliance with the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has found that just about 8% of Gujarat’s female workforce is employable in as against 31% in Rajasthan, 23% in Andhra Pradesh, 21% in Karnataka and 20% in Telangana.
Even the so-called Bimaru state Uttar Pradesh with 16% employable female workforce ranks better than Gujarat, finds the report, which gives details of top ten states. Maharashtra’s 18%, West Bengal’s 17% , Haryana’s 15% and Tamil Nadu’s 11% female workforce is found to be employable in industries, says “India Skills Report 2017”, whose academic partner is GoI’s All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
Prepared in order to tell industry leaders where to get the male and female talent they have been needing in order to keep their enterprises running, the report claims to be based on a sample size of 5.6 lakh final students cutting across different disciplines in 29 Indian states and seven union territories. Though it is a special section of females, interestingly, the report does not say what is its female sample size.
Further, the report does not find any of Gujarat’s cities in the top 10 cities with employable female workforce. Here, Kolkata tops the list at 73.13%, followed by New Delhi 65.96%, Udaipur 62.18%, Dhule 64.54%, Pune at 60.08%, Tonk 57.87%, Sholapur 55.39%, Tipurpati 54.51, Hyderabad 52.77%, Mysore 51.83%, and Nashik 49.17%.
Pointing out that Bengaluru at 45% and Lucknow 39% have employable female workforce, the report states, while colleges located in Tier 1 cities provide better exposure to students, what is noteworthy is that “even with limited resources and average education facilities the youth in tier 2 and tier 3 cities is empowered and is performing better than its peer.”
Pointing out that “Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan are the top states preferred by females, whereas Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh are the top states preferred by males”, the report says, “With nearly 80% of the employable female population coming from tier 2 and tier 3 cities, their preference is cities like Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad etc.”, which is not surprising.
The report states, “Sectorwise data show that, of 11 the sectors covered as part of the survey, hardly half of the sectors have 30% of their workforce as women”, adding, “38% of post graduate women are job market ready, whereas in case of graduation, this percentage is 45%, but these numbers do not find uniform reflection in the hiring strategy.”
The report says, “Women constitute more than 50% of the workforce in Sectors like E-commerce and Retail, manufacturing and engineering have less than 25% of females in their workforce whereas for Sectors like BFSI and BFS, BPO, ITES this percentage is restricted to 25.”

Comments

TRENDING

Irrational? Basis for fear among Hindus about being 'swamped' by Muslims

I was amused while reading an article titled "Ham Paanch, Hamare Pachees", shared on Facebook, by well-known policy analyst Mohan Guruswamy, an alumnus of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. Guruswamy, who has also worked as an advisor to the Finance Minister with the rank of Secretary to the Government of India, seeks to probe, as he himself states, "the supposed Muslim attitude to family planning"—a theme that was invoked by Narendra Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister ahead of the December 2002 assembly polls.

Why's Australian crackdown rattling Indian students? Whopping 25% fake visa applications

This is what happened several months ago. A teenager living in the housing society where I reside was sent to Australia to study at a university in Sydney with much fanfare. The parents, whom I often met as part of a group, would tell us how easily the boy got his admission with the help of "some well-meaning friends," adding that they had obtained an education loan to ensure he could study at a graduate school.

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

Gujarat slips in India Justice Report 2025: From model state to mid-table performer

Overall ranking in IJR reports The latest India Justice Report (IJR), prepared by legal experts with the backing of several civil society organisations and aimed at ranking the capacity of states to deliver justice, has found Gujarat—considered by India's rulers as a model state for others to follow—slipping to the 11th position from fourth in 2022.

Punishing senior citizens? Flipkart, Shopsy stop Cash on Delivery in Ahmedabad!

The other day, someone close to me attempted to order some goodies on Flipkart and its subsidiary Shopsy. After preparing a long list of items, this person, as usual, opted for the Cash on Delivery (popularly known as COD) option, as this senior citizen isn't very familiar with online prepaid payment methods like UPI, credit or debit cards, or online bank transfers through websites. In fact, she is hesitant to make online payments, fearing, "I may make a mistake," she explained, adding, "I read a lot about online frauds, so I always choose COD as it's safe. I have no knowledge of how to prepay online."

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Of lingering shadow of Haren Pandya's murder during Modi's Gujarat days

Sunita Williams’ return to Earth has, ironically, reopened an old wound: the mysterious murder of her first cousin, the popular BJP leader Haren Pandya, in 2003. Initially a supporter of Narendra Modi, Haren turned against him, not sparing any opportunity to do things that would embarrass Modi. Social media and some online news portals, including The Wire , are abuzz with how Modi’s recent invitation to Sunita to visit India comes against the backdrop of how he, as Gujarat’s chief minister, didn’t care to offer any official protocol support during her 2007 visit to Gujarat.  

Area set aside in Ahmedabad for PM's affordable housing scheme 'has gone to big builders'

Following my article on affordable housing in Counterview, which quoted a top real estate consultant, I was informed that affordable housing—a scheme introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi—has deviated from its original intent. A former senior bureaucrat, whom I used to meet during my Sachivalaya days, told me that an entire area in Ahmedabad, designated for the scheme, has been used to construct costly houses instead. 

Just 5% Gujarat Dalit households 'recognise' social reformers who inspired Ambedkar

An interesting survey conducted across 22 districts and 32 villages in Gujarat sheds light on the representation of key social reformers in Dalit households. It suggests that while Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's photo was displayed in a majority of homes, images of Lord Buddha and the 19th-century reformist couple, Savitribai Phule and Jyotiba Phule, were not as commonly represented.