Is Gender a Barrier to Access Vocational Training in India? An Empirical Analysis based on Periodic Labour Force Survey Data

Given the increasing pace of globalisation and technological changes on the one hand and low access to general education in developing countries on the other, possession of knowledge and skill has become critically important. India positioned at the verge of transformation to become a knowledge-based economy, unfortunately has low-skilled less market-ready section of people, particularly women, for whom education in general stream still remains a panacea. Vocational training (VT) is an important vehicle of skill development, which can offer those women a second chance to gather skill and successfully participate in labour market. However, evidence suggests that in spite of direct government intervention, they often fail to benefit from skilling programmes. While the existing literature primarily focuses on why women who get VT still cannot get high-earning jobs unlike the men, this paper, based on NSSO Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2018–19 unit-level data, tries to shade light on the access to vocational training of women vis-à-vis men in India and explore whether gender works as an obstacle for accessing vocational training in India and an eastern state, namely West Bengal. Results find that women suffer from disproportionately low access to VT across all education groups. Access is particularly meagre for low general education, indicating that as hypothesised, VT cannot substitute the lack of general education for the women. Even if the women get access to VT, the options available to them are limited and gender-stereotyped.