Journal of Global Resources
Volume 5 (02)
July 2019
ISSN: 2395-3160 (Print), 2455-2445 (Online)

Page 78-85

11STATUS OF WOMEN’S EDUCATION AND WORK PARTICIPATION IN THE WARD
NUMBER 122 OF KOLKATA MUNICIPAL CORPORATION – A GRASS ROOT LEVELANALYSIS
Samik Chakraborty1 and Uday Chatterjee2
1
Guest Lecturer, Department of Geography,
Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri College, Kolkata, (West Bengal), India. Email:samik.chakraborty2012@gmail.com
2Assistant Professor,
Department of Geography, Bhatter College, Dantan, (under Vidyasagar University),
Paschim Medinipur (West Bengal), India
Email: raj.chatterjee459@gmail.com
Abstract : The present study is trying to explore very small effort to identify the status of twovery basic things for women i.e. education and work participation. The study is based on
primary as well as secondary sources of data. Primary data has been collected from 150
households in the Ward Number 122 of Kolkata Municipal Corporation by classifying theminto three equal sample groups of the high, medium and low-income level to makecomparisons. Secondary data has been collected from the District Census Handbook,Kolkata, 2011. The major findings of this study uphold the areas of deprivation of women interms of education and work participation compared to men. And it is high time to think about
how these differences can be minimized. The study is finally concluded with somerecommendations which may be considered as fruitful to solve these problems to someextent.
Key words: Women; Education; Work Participation; Gender Bias.
Introduction
Now day’s we acknowledged that days have been changed a lot from before in terms ofliving. Percentage of literacy is increasing in every decade. Because there is a sharp growthobserved in student enrollment for schools and colleges. Usually, the rate of work
participation has also increased. At times it is creating tremendous pressure on employment
sectors. As a result, a huge number of urban unemployment is being generated day by day.
A large number of people nowadays have accustomed to modern means of communicationsuch as mobile phones, internet and so on. There a radical change has seen in the attitudeof people towards women in our society. Now women are playing important roles in every
sector of life besides men. Government has taken a lot of initiatives in favour of women
empowerment. These steps are really commendable. But it should remember that thedarkness always prevails under the lamp. In spite of all empowerment measures, it can besaid that women yet don’t get equal opportunities compared to men in various prospects oflife. Women confront several problems in their daily life. Their basic human rights are being
violated repeatedly in a variety of ways. Women don’t get enough priorities regarding
education, employment and so many things. Not only underdeveloped and developing
countries are suffering from these but also developed countries facing the same. Sometimes
it is more painful to see when the negligence also comes from her mother to a girl child orwomen, in addition to others. Though it sounds bad, it’s true. For instance, in most of thefamilies, mother’s care and love are seen more for their sons than daughters. So manyreasons are there to do like that. It is unknown when and how the problem will come to anend completely. But the efforts should be continued. Only the government will not be able todo this, goodwill is also needed from every people from every section of society.
Present Study
Keeping the above facts in mind, the present study focuses on gender discrimination in termsof education and work participation in the Ward Number 122 of Kolkata Municipal
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Corporation. Kolkata is one of the metropolitan cities in India as well as the capital of thestate of West Bengal. The city is situated between 22º37' to 22º30' North latitude and 88º23'
to 88º18' East longitude. Elevation ranges from 1.5 meters to 9.0 meters above the meansea level. Hooghly is the main river in Kolkata which has created the western boundary ofthis city. The KMC area is about 185 square kilometres having 44, 96,694 populations with
23, 56,766 males and 21, 39,928 females. The population density in this city is 24,306
persons per square kilometre. The population growth rate during the last decade is -1.67 percent. This rate of growth among males are -5.73 percent and 3.24 percent amongFigure 1: Location of (Ward 122 Kolkata Municipal Corporation, West Bengal)

Source: Kolkata Municipal Corporation officefemales. The sex ratio of this city is 908. The total number of households in this city is 10,07,365. Kolkata is divided into 16 boroughs and 144 electoral wards. Among 144 wards,
ward number 122 of Kolkata Municipal Corporation has been selected for this study(Fig.1),
located at the southern part of Kolkata. This ward is under the borough number 13 having
9,977 households, 39,198 populations (Census - 2011) with 19,906 males and 19,292
females, 3.16 sq. km. area, the density of 12404.43 persons per sq. km and 12.13 percent ofpopulation growth (2001 – 2011) rate.
Objectives
The objectives of the study are as follows: To identify the age-sex structure of population in the Ward Number 122.
 To make a comparative analysis of literacy status between men and women in thisward.
 To examine the rate of work participation among women compared to men in thisward.
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Database and Methodologies
This study is based on primary as well as secondary sources of data. Secondary information
has been taken from the District Census Handbook, Kolkata, 2011. Primary information has
been collected from 150 households of the Ward Number 122. These households are
selected by dividing them into high, middle and low-income groups. So that 50 households
are taken from every single income group. Above 50,000 rupees monthly income is taken as
high-income groups, the income ranges between 20,000 to 50,000 rupees as middle-income
groups and below 20,000 rupees as low-income groups respectively. The indicators of thisstudy are age-sex structure of population, literacy and work participation.
ANALYSIS AND MAJOR FINDINGS
Age-Sex Composition of Population
First of all, some important statistics are given. The Ward Number 122 has 39,198
populations. The total number of males and females in this ward are 19,906 and 19,292
respectively. The sex ratio of this ward is 969 which is greater than the same for Kolkata i.e.
908. 2,797 children are under below 6 years age group with 1,461 males and 1,336 females.
The sex ratio for below 6 years age is 914. Another very important thing is that there are total
1,128 Scheduled Caste Population with 576 males and 552 females in this ward. Again 85
persons belong to Scheduled Tribes and among them, 43 are males whereas rest arefemales. Next, a simple age-sex pyramid has been drawn on the basis of collected samples
showing the composition of the population. The pyramid shows that the percentage of thedependent population is lower than the working population. But in the case of the malepopulation, the percentage of the population in above 60 years of age group is greater than
the female population. Maximum male population belongs to 42 to 54 years of age groupand minimum belongs to 30 to 36 years of age group. On the other hand, the maximum
female population in this ward is under 36 to 42 years of age whereas the minimum comesunder below 6 years of age group. It can be said that the sample population pyramid isshowing its characteristics like a pyramid of a developed country. Because here thepercentage of the working population is higher than the dependent population(Fig.2).
Levels of Education
At the beginning, some essential statistics should be discussed. The percentage of Literacy
is quite satisfactory in this ward. 86.25 percent of people are literate in this ward. Thepercentage of literacy is 88.16 percent among males whereas 84.28 percent among females.
Another important observation is that the percentage of male literates is 2 percent higher
than the ward percentage. On the other hand, the percentage of female literates is almost 2
percent lower than ward (Fig.3)

80percentage and 8 percent from male literates. The following diagram is showing that thenumber of illiterates among females is more than the number of illiterates among males.
11.53 percent of the female has been found as illiterate in this ward whereas this number isalmost half among males compared to females i.e. 5.29 percent only. Except for 10th and 12th
standard, the percentage of female literacy is lower than male literacy in all other levels suchas primary, graduation, post-graduation, Ph.D., B.Ed., L.L.B. and technical.

As it was previously stated, that all indicators i.e. education and work participation has beenchecked not only on the ward as a whole but also on different income groups. In the next
segment, the percentage of literates and illiterates in various level of education has beenanalyzed among various income groups. The comparative study between males and females
has also been done here. The following diagram(Fig.4) is showing that the percentage ofilliterates among females are also high compared to males in high-income groups. But thisdifference is not as high as much as the ward total. There is almost 1 percent difference has
only been found. From primary to higher secondary level the percentage of female
engagements is higher than male but on other levels, females are lesser than males. Thefollowing bar graphs are showing that the difference between male and female regardinglevels of education is increasing with decreasing levels of income(Fig.5). There are almost 9
percent difference has been81

found in the percentage of illiterates between males and females. Females have highengagement in higher secondary level only. Otherwise, in all other categories, they arebehind from the males. In the case of graduate-level studies, almost 15 percent of males
have engaged more compared to females.Some common features(Fig.6) have been foundfrom the study of the levels of education of low-income groups. There are almost 9 percent
difference has been seen regarding the percentage of illiterates between males and females.
No one in this group has any educational degree after post-graduation. Not only that, thepercentage of enrollment in post-graduation is very low compared to its levels before. Thatmeans the lower level of income influences the education level of people. In most of thecases, children from low-income group families are forced to stop their education at early due
to engaging in working sectors for supporting their family. So not only females but also males
didn’t get the chance of higher education in this group.

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Rate of Work participation
The most important factor just after literacy by which the status of women can be measured
i.e. female work participation rate(Fig.7). In a similar way, this indicator has also been carriedout on the ward as a whole and thereafter among high, medium and low-income groups

respectively. Some important outcomes have also been found by this study which has
discussed in the next section of the study. It is very unfortunate to say that 53.44 percent offemale in this ward are unemployed or they are performing only the role of housewives intheir respective families. It is known by all of us that contribution as housewives is notgranted as to an economic activity because any sort of income is not generated by this.
Mention should be made that the percentage of students are not taken to calculate thepercentage of unemployment. The similar trend is also found from the sectors, where thefemales have joined into works. These sectors are showing a huge difference in percentage

regarding work participation between males and females. Some professions such as doctor,professor and advocate – no female work participation have been found. Next, the same
analysis has been carried out on the high(Fig.8), middle(Fig.9) and low-income groups
respectively. Here also almost the same results have been found. A large number of
unemployed females has been observed there also. Apart from that, in all other groups, they
have lower participation in work compared to males. The minimum rate of employment
among females confines only into the private job, business, self-employment and very few
among government services. But merely the difference is that any work participation is notfound among females as a government employee, doctor, engineer, teacher, professor and83

advocate in middle-income groups compared to high. The following back to back diagrams isshowing the status of employment among high and middle-income groups respectively.

Last but not least, the rate of work participation among females compared to males
has been analyzed in the low-income group of people. The sectors in this group wherefemale work participation has been found i.e. only private job and self-employment. No
difference is observed in female unemployment in case of low-income(Fig.10) groups justlike as other two income groups.

Suggestions and Conclusion
The study exhibits that in Ward number 122, the status of girls schooling, as well aseducation in addition to the work participation rate, is not well enough. So local government
need to take good initiative for improvement of the social and educational status of theselected ward. The enrolment of females in particular in higher studies could be very low
over there. A massive number of unemployed women have also been determined in all
income groups of people. Especially women from low-income groups are very much deprivedof schooling as well as employment. It should be remembered that education andemployment are related positively. So, an educated woman can get a job as per her desire.
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To start with, encouragement, as well as economic backup, may be very much needed for
women education. After that, the effectiveness of work participation is to be taught to them.
These type of steps are had to be taken from the family, society and government. It must
usually be remembered that men and women are just like the wings of a bird. Further, if
women are pressured confine within the partitions then the overall up gradation of any
society can’t be possible.
References
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Journal of Indian Psychology (IJIP), Vol. 2, Issue 3, pp. 46-53.
3. Ranganath N. S., Rao K. A., Srinivas N., (2011) “Gender Inequality in Education”, Zenith
International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research,Vol. 1, Issue 6, pp. 325-332.
4. Sharma R., Afroz Z., (2014) “Women Empowerment through Higher Education”,
International Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies (IJIMS), Vol. 1, No. 5, pp. 18-22.
5. Shettar M. R., (2015) “A Study on Issues and Challenges of Women Empowerment inIndia”, IOSR Journal of Business and Management, Vol. 17, Issue 4, pp. 13-19.
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