Female GER Climbs to 31.2%, Tops Men's 28.9%, Says AISHE

By: Women Entrepreneurs Review Team | Thursday, 9 July 2026

The current higher education data landscape in India is not about just an increase in enrollment, but a constellation of women driving the growth. Women are definitely lagging behind men in the recently released All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2023-24.

The Education Ministry on Wednesday released the report, which revealed that 31.2% of the female Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) - a ratio that gives a picture of access to higher education as a percentage of the eligible population aged 18-23 - has increased compared with 28.9% among men.

This trend, which has solidified over the last three years, shows female GER grew from 28.5% in 2021-22 to 30.2% in 2022-23, before jumping to 31.2% in 2023-24. Male GER, on the other hand, only rose from 28.3% to 28.9%, where it stagnated in 2023-24. This resulted in the female lead rising from only 0.2 percentage points in 2021-22 to 1.3 in 2022-23 and a definite 2.3 points in the current survey.

The AISHE report reports a 7th consecutive year of “Female GER” surpassing “Male GER.” In addition, the all-India Gender Parity Index (GPI) – the ratio of female to male GER – has also steadily risen from 1.01 in 2021-22 to 1.04 in 2022-23, and 1.08 in 2023-24, reflecting the continuous growth of the GER index for girls, rather than an aberration.

Key Highlights:

• Female GER rises to 31.2%, ahead of men's 28.9%
• Women make up 49.7% of higher education enrolment
• Women account for 31.1% of engineering enrolments

Not only are women flocking to higher education but are also nearly equal participants. They make up 49.7 per cent of the 4.50 crore students enrolled in higher education in the country, an increase from 2.07 crore in 2021-22 to 2.18 crore in 2022-23 and to 2.24 crore in 2023-24, which is a growth of nearly 17 lakh women in two years. The overall increase in enrolment was the same in this period, so that the net increase was almost entirely made up of women.

They are even more significant in postgraduate studies, representing 56.2% of students. This implies a consistent supply system after the bachelor's level as well with the male/female participation being strong in the social groups: 50.3% of women in Scheduled Caste (SC) group, 52.3% of women in Scheduled Tribe (ST) group and 49.9% of women in Other Backward Classes (OBC) group.

The survey shows that all groups of women are making impressive gains. The number of SC female students rose from around 31.7 lakh in 2021-22 to 33.9 lakh in 2022-23 and 35.1 lakh in 2023-24. The figures of ST women increased from 13.46 lakh to 14.67 lakh and to 15.08 lakh; while OBC women increased from 78.19 lakh to 85.32 lakh and then to 90.05 lakh. This equates to a growth rate of approximately 10.7%, 12.0%, and 15.2% for the SC, ST, and OBC women respectively over the two year period.

It's the same story in the states. Female enrollment has surpassed male enrollment in Bihar (14.0 lakh vs 13.6 lakh), West Bengal (12.5 lakh vs 12.0 lakh), Telangana (9.1 lakh vs 8.7 lakh), Kerala (7.4 lakh vs 5.4 lakh), Haryana, Punjab, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Assam and Uttarakhand for the year 2023-24. The female enrolment was also favourable in the North East region where 7.0 lakh females appeared against 6.2 lakh males.

But, the story is not so bright in technical education. Women have been doing well in most subjects but the engineering and technology courses at the undergraduate level still have a way to go. Females' share in this group increased marginally from 30.1% of the total in 2022-23 to 31.1% in 2023-24. Although there is a growing trend towards higher education for women, there are certain areas of concern in technical fields.