Empowering Indian Women through Distance

Education in India
*Andalib zehra
**Dr.Zeba sheereen
Abstract
The term Open and Distance Education represent approaches that focus on opening access to
education and training provision, freeing learners from the constraints of time and place, and
offering flexible learning opportunities to individuals and groups of learners.In responce to
the growing social demand for education, training for professional development,
opportunities for Open and Distance Learning(ODL) have been augmented. India developed
open and distance education system, both at school and higher education level in the country
to supplement its face to face, conventioanal education system with the objective to provide
opportunity for education to larger segment of population. Open and Distance Learning
(ODL) is used as a major vehicle to break the three vectors - access, quality and cost – that
has constrained education time immemorial in order to improve women‟s wellbeing, reduce
their vulnerability and act as a starting point in their empowerment. . Female literacy in India
today is still considerably lower than male literacy and much more needs to be done to realize
the right of quality education for all. The problem of illiteracy is aggravated by social
constraints, which inhibit female literacy and the educational development of women.
Inequality between the genders is one of the most crucial and yet one of the most persistent
disparities in India where differences in female and male literacy rates are glaring. The Indian
government has expressed a strong commitment towards education for all; however, India
still has one of the lowest female literacy rates. This low level of literacy not only has a
negative impact on women’s lives but also on their families’ lives and on their country’s
economic development.
This paper analyses the importance and need of Distance education, the major contributory
factors, cost-effectiveness, knowledge creation and other factors related to distance education
and its role in empowering women through education.

*Research scholar, Dept. Of Economics, Aligarh Muslim University. Aligarh

(andalib.zehra@gmail.com)
**Associate Professor, Dept. Of Economics, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh