• Women’s ability to participate in the country’s IT growth is impaired by the lower status ascribed to women and girls in Indian society
• Women’s literacy rate at only 51.4%, compared to men’s 74.5%
• Women make up 88% of the students in the arts, science and commerce, while education and law account for 4% of women students, and engineering accounts only for 1%.
• 23% of India’s Internet Users are Women
• 30.4% of female tertiary students are studying natural sciences
• Women comprise 37% of the employees in IT-enabled service sector.
• If women want to work in the IT sector, they have to relocate since very few IT jobs exist in the Northern states, outside of New Delhi.

Gender Policy Framework

• The Ministry of Education has informal and formal education programs for women and girls.
• The Department of Women and Child Development is devoted to “formulating plans, policies and programs, enacting/amending legislation, guiding and coordinating the efforts of both governmental and non-governmental organizations working in the field of Women and Child Development.” Its activities to create working women hostels and creches may address the mobility constraints that prevent women from working in IT.