BHUBANESWAR: Districts that have witnessed low enrolment of girls and gender parity in higher education, will get more hostels for girl students. The Ministry of Education’s Pradhan Mantri Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (PM-USHA) scheme will facilitate it.
Last month, the state government signed an MoU with the Education Ministry to implement PM-USHA for enhancing the higher education sector. Officials said under the scheme, priority will be given to ‘focus districts’ that have low gender parity and gross enrolment ratio (GER) of girls, transgenders, SCs, STs and OBCs and are aspirational, situated at borders and infected by Maoists.
A key component under PM-USHA is ‘Gender Inclusion and Equity Initiatives’ which is aimed at promoting gender parity and creating a safe and supportive environment for girls and other under-represented groups within the higher educational institutions.
Under this component, all colleges under the regional education directorates of Sambalpur, Berhampur, Jeypore and Balasore were asked by the Higher Education department on Tuesday to submit their proposals for setting up hostels for girl students.
Officials said hostels will be constructed at nearby colleges and universities to help the girls from the ‘focus districts’ to stay close to their institutions and continue higher education, thereby improving the gender parity index (GPI) in higher education. Under the scheme, each project will be granted Rs 10 crore.
The index is the ratio of female to male GER. Odisha’s GPI has remained way below the national average of 1.05 per cent and almost 29 states have a better index. As per the All India Survey of Higher Education for 2021-22 which was released by the ministry this year, the index in the age group of 18 to 23 years stood at 0.94 per cent for academic year 2020-21. It was 0.90 per cent in 2019-20.
For PM-UHSA, the Union government will contribute Rs 500 crore towards development and infrastructure of higher education institutions across Odisha. It will be implemented in a 60:40 expenditure ratio between the Centre and the state.