Women make up only 5.5 percent of ITI engineering enrolments, NITI Aayog paper shows

A new working paper by NITI Aayog has revealed a stark gender imbalance in India's technical education, showing that women made up just 5.5% of total enrolments in core engineering trades at Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) between 2019 and 2024. The report, which comes as the debate over a 33% reservation for women returns to the centre stage in Hyderabad, highlights how female trainees remain heavily underrepresented in technical fields.

According to the NITI Aayog paper, titled "Girls and Women at the Centre: Advancing Non-Traditional Livelihoods in India," the country's skilling ecosystem continues to channel women into traditional occupations. This occurs even though technical and industrial jobs offer higher wages, stronger career prospects, and greater employment opportunities than traditional fields.

The enrolment data from 2019 to 2024 shows a massive gap between male and female trainees. During this five-year period, women accounted for only around two lakh admissions in engineering trades at ITIs across the country. In contrast, male admissions in the same trades reached nearly 36.5 lakh.

While women are largely absent from industrial classrooms, they overwhelmingly dominate admissions in traditional courses. The report shows that women made up between 93% and 99% of all admissions in courses such as cosmetology, fashion design, dress making, and embroidery.

The trade-specific data further underscores the disparity within core engineering fields. Women comprised just 2.7% of trainees in mechanic (motor vehicle) courses, 2.9% in plumbing, and 3.4% in fitter courses. Representation was similarly low in other technical areas, with women making up only 3.5% of trainees in welding, 4.8% in electrician courses, and 6.8% in wireman courses.

The NITI Aayog paper highlights that this persistent gender imbalance channels women into lower-paying occupations, preventing them from accessing technical and industrial jobs that offer higher wages and stronger career prospects.