Tushar Agrawal

Vocational education and training in India: challenges, status and labour market outcomes

This paper provides an overview of vocational education and training (VET) system in India, and discusses various challenges and difficulties in the Indian VET system. The paper also examines labour market outcomes of vocational graduates and compares these with those of general secondary graduates using a large-scale nationally representative household survey. We find quite a high rate of unemployment (11%) for VET holders in the age group 15–29 years. Although unemployment rate of VET holders is higher than the overall unemployment rate in the same age group, the rate is lower than that for general secondary graduates. We show that average daily wages are higher, both for regular and casual workers, for VET holders. There has been a considerable increase in the number of Industrial Training Institutes/Centres in the last decades, but the coverage of the system is disparate in terms of institutes’ vis-à-vis states.

Are There Glass-Ceiling and Sticky-Floor Effects in India? An Empirical Examination

In this paper, the gender-related wage differentials in the rural and urban sectors of the Indian economy are analysed. The hypotheses that there is a glass-ceiling effect—a greater wage gap at the top end of the wage-distribution range—and a sticky-floor effect—a wider wage gap at the bottom are examined. Findings show evidence of the glass-ceiling effect in the rural sector and evidence of the sticky-floor effect in the urban sector. Using a counterfactual decomposition method, the raw wage gap is decomposed to identify the contributions of characteristics and coefficients. The results reveal the presence of labour–market discrimination against women. Furthermore, women at the lower end of the wage-distribution spectrum face more discrimination than those at the higher end of the range.

Educational attainment in educationally backward states of India: some implications for the Right to Education Act

This paper presents estimates of educational attainment and educational inequality for educationally backward states in India. Using multiple rounds of nationally representative household surveys carried out by the National Sample Survey Organisation of India, we estimate average years of schooling and the education Gini index. The estimates show that educational attainment is very low and the extent of inequality is high in all the states. The study adds to the evidence on large gender inequalities in educational attainment in the states of Bihar and Rajasthan. The results are very distressed for disadvantaged social groups of the society. There is a need to give attention on education of females belonging to these social groups, particularly in rural areas, to make the Right to Education Act successful.

Skill development in India: an examination

Skill development has been a major policy agenda of the Indian government in the past few years. This paper sheds light on the current scenario and labour market outcomes of vocationally trained population. The paper is based on data from two recent rounds of nationally representative employment and unemployment survey. The paper shows that 2.4% of the population had vocational education and training in year 2004–2005 and this share has further declined to less than 2% in year 2009–2010, in the age bracket 15–29 years. Though unemployment rate of this group has declined by two percentage points between the two years, nevertheless, the extent of the rate has remained very high. Further, we compare the outcomes between formal and non-formal vocational trainees.