A bottom-up approach to improve women’s access to technical and vocational education and training in India: Examining a non-formal education upskilling programme

Abstract

The Indian Government’s 12th Five Year Plan features ambitious goals regarding the upskilling of women in India. While the Plan acknowledges Indian women’s continued inequality, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) programmes (a main avenue for upskilling) pose considerable challenges. There is significant work to be done if India aspires to meet the 12th Plan’s goals. Moreover, to achieve them in a socially just manner, greater efforts are required to include and amplify women’s voices throughout the process. In pursuit of this aim, the authors of this research note share insights from the first stages of their study of an upskilling programme in the non-formal education sector. They argue for a bottom-up approach to understand how women wish to participate in this programme and in government-recognised TVET more broadly. To understand the women’s perspectives, the authors use the notions of third-space frameworks and “scapes”. These concepts go beyond simply acknowledging the need for labour upskilling and offer opportunities to critique gender biases, stereotypes and patriarchal practices, while formulating new ideas about how to engage as active participants in Indian society. Based on these insights, the authors offer a path forward by directly engaging with women on the ground level, using a bottom-up approach.

Full text

Vol.:(0123456789)
International Review of Education
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-021-09890-1
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RESEARCH NOTE
A bottom‑up approach toimprove women’s access
totechnical andvocational education andtraining inIndia:
Examining anon‑formal education upskilling programme
MatthewA.Witenstein1 · RadhikaIyengar2
© UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning and Springer Nature B.V. 2021
Abstract
The Indian Government’s 12th Five Year Plan features ambitious goals regarding
the upskilling of women in India. While the Plan acknowledges Indian women’s
continued inequality, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) pro-
grammes (a main avenue for upskilling) pose considerable challenges. There is sig-
nificant work to be done if India aspires to meet the 12th Plan’s goals. Moreover, to
achieve them in a socially just manner, greater efforts are required to include and
amplify women’s voices throughout the process. In pursuit of this aim, the authors
of this research note share insights from the first stages of their study of an upskill-
ing programme in the non-formal education sector. They argue for a bottom-up
approach to understand how women wish to participate in this programme and in
government-recognised TVET more broadly. To understand the women’s perspec-
tives, the authors use the notions of third-space frameworks and “scapes”. These
concepts go beyond simply acknowledging the need for labour upskilling and offer
opportunities to critique gender biases, stereotypes and patriarchal practices, while
formulating new ideas about how to engage as active participants in Indian society.
Based on these insights, the authors offer a path forward by directly engaging with
women on the ground level, using a bottom-up approach.
Keywords technical and vocational education and training (TVET)· non-formal
education· gender· bottom-up policy· third spaces· scapes· participatory action
research· upskilling· access
* Matthew A. Witenstein
mwitenstein1@udayton.edu
Radhika Iyengar
Iyengar@ei.columbia.edu
1 Department ofEducational Administration, University ofDayton, Dayton, OH, USA
2 Education Sector, Earth Institute, The Interchurch Center, Columbia University, NewYork, NY,
USA

M.A.Witenstein, R.Iyengar
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Résumé
Une approche du bas vers le haut pour améliorer l’accès des femmes à l’éducation et
la formation techniques et professionnelles en Inde: examen d’un programme non
formel d’amélioration des compétences – Le douzième plan quinquennal du gou-
vernement indien comporte des objectifs ambitieux pour l’amélioration des compé-
tences des femmes dans le pays. Quoique le plan reconnaisse les inégalités dont les
femmes indiennes demeurent les victimes, les programmes d’éducation et de forma-
tion techniques et professionnelles (une importante possibilité pour elles d’améliorer
leurs compétences) posent des défis considérables. Il reste encore beaucoup à faire si
l’Inde veut atteindre les objectifs de son douzième plan. En outre, afin d’y parvenir
de façon socialement équitable, de plus grands efforts seront nécessaires pour inclure
et amplifier la voix des femmes tout au long de ce processus. En vue d’atteindre cet
objectif, les auteurs de cette note de recherche partagent des conclusions extraites des
premières étapes de leur étude sur un programme d’amélioration des compétences
dans le secteur de l’éducation non formelle. Ils préconisent une approche du bas vers
le haut pour comprendre comment les femmes souhaitent participer à ce programme
et, plus largement, aux programmes d’éducation et de formation techniques et profes-
sionnelles reconnus par l’État. Pour comprendre les points de vue des femmes, les
auteurs recourent aux notions de tiers-espace [le third space, un espace entre deux
de relations intersubjectives et intersociétales] et de scapes [de «paysages»]. Ces
concepts dépassent la simple reconnaissance de la nécessité d’améliorer les com-
pétences professionnelles et d’offrir des occasions de critiquer les préjugés sexistes,
les stéréotypes et les pratiques patriarcales, tout en formulant de nouvelles idées sur
la façon de prendre une part active à la société indienne. S’appuyant sur ces conclu-
sions, les auteurs proposent une voie en s’engageant directement auprès des femmes
sur le terrain, au moyen d’un approche du bas vers le haut.
Introduction
The Indian Government’s 12th Five Year Plan features ambitious goals for the
upskilling of women in India (Planning Commission 2013). While the 11th Plan
(Planning Commission 2008) encouraged girls’ access to technical and vocational
education and training (TVET), the 12th Plan takes a far more strategic approach
to upskilling through education, presenting greater detail about the barriers
women and girls encounter. The plan features seven key gender equity points.
Most relevant to the present research note are:
1. Economic Empowerment;
…
4. Women’s Participation in Governance; and
…
6. Engendering National Policies/Programmes
(Planning Commission 2013, p.166).

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A bottom-up approach toimprove women’s access totechnical…
The 12th Plan also states that improving women’s access to education is crucial to
the progress of Indian society.
The timing for addressing these inequities almost coincides with the schedule of
the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations General Assembly’s Sustainable Develop-
ment Goals (SDGs) (UN 2015). Particularly relevant to the 12th Plan are SDG4
(“Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learn-
ing opportunities for all”) and SDG5 (“Achieve gender equality and empower all
women and girls”) (UN 2015, pp. 17–18). The 12th Plan’s recognition of gender
inequality and its call for major upskilling opportunities for women through TVET
therefore fit well with SDGs 4 (Education) and 5 (Gender). Nevertheless, there are
a number of dilemmas, both practical and policy-related, regarding how best to
achieve this combination of goals. While national policies tend to be predominately
top-down, how can we ensure that education becomes a tool not only for developing
skills, but also for empowerment? How can these national policies foster women’s
autonomy in both skills and mindset? These are some of the points considered in
this research note.
The informal economy andnon‑formal education
In order to understand the barriers that Indian women face, it is necessary first to
sketch the situation regarding India’s informal economy and non-formal education
sector. Of the 50% of Indians who are currently employed, nearly 81% are employed
in the informal economy sector, according to an estimate by the International
Labour Organization (ILO 2018; Punia 2020). The same ILO report also found that
98.3% of South Asian youth aged 15–24 were in informal employment, compared
with 67.1% of adult workers aged 25+ (The Wire 2018). The overwhelming major-
ity (90%) of informal sector workers are educated only up to primary level. The rate
of female participation in the labour force has declined from 32% in 2005 to 23% in
2019 (Punia 2020). Unemployment due to formal and informal sector job loss has
been increasing over the past five years. Given this backdrop, in 2014 the Ministry
of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) launched the Skill India cam-
paign, reaching out to skill and re-skill four million individuals (Punia 2020).
Much learning in India takes place through the non-formal education sector,
which comprises organised, structured learning opportunities outside the formal
education system, including lifelong learning (Mbilu 2019; Pandya and Maniar
2014). Formal evaluations and completion certificates or degrees are less common
in non-formal education. Matthias Pilz and Simon Wilmshöfer comment that:
the advantages of non-formal education lie particularly in the high level of
scrupulousness with which skills are developed and in the tailoring of this edu-
cation to the realities of the learner’s life (Pilz and Wilmshöfer 2015, p.13).
Building upon this, Ellance Mathias Mbilu (2019) argues that non-formal education
may be more relevant to people’s lives than incomplete formal education, provid-
ing opportunities to transform the livelihood of one’s family and community and

M.A.Witenstein, R.Iyengar
1 3
ultimately society itself. Literacy is often a focus of non-formal education pro-
grammes (Mitra 2007; Pandya and Maniar 2014; Yum 2014), alongside other more
technical forms of upskilling. Mbilu (2019) suggests that non-formal education
could be an opportunity to support women’s empowerment and workforce gender
parity. However, in order to achieve these goals, it is critical to understand how and
why women are falling through the gaps regarding the TVET initiatives outlined
in the Five Year Plan. In the hope of gaining insight into this issue, we engaged
with women participating in a non-formal education upskilling programme similar
to TVET .
Before presenting the fruits of this research, we consider some of the tools women
need for decision-making. These tools not only advance our argument, but also
demonstrate the intertwined complexity of components that need to be addressed in
order to meet the 12th Plan’s goals.
Equipping women fordecision‑making
For some insightful ideas that begin to answer these questions, we reflect on our
interview with Liberian politician and philanthropist MacDella Cooper (2018)
which took place in our Power in Praxis online forum.1 Her insight is highly val-
ued because of her extensive work through her Foundation, which aims to improve
women’s and children’s lives at the intersection of education and economics. Coop-
er’s interview (ibid.) suggested ways to improve women’s access to TVET in India,
covering economics, education, decision-making and policy participation.
Cooper (2018) maintains that we can leverage education as a route to decision-
making power and civic engagement, leading to women’s greater involvement in
policy development. She points out that when women are equipped with education,
they can play a more active role in decision-making. It is important to provide an
engaging, supportive environment where women are able to make decisions about
policy and aspects of civic society. How best to create and sustain that environment
is an important question for those working across the TVET sector.
For Cooper, it is critical that we help women equip themselves with tools. This lifts
dependency and creates opportunities for agency and decision-making. Cooper argues
that many women in villages want those tools, along with better access to finances.
TVET can provide opportunities for women to access this potent combination of skills
and financial opportunity. Cooper believes that women typically know what jobs and
training they want to do. The key question therefore is: how do researchers and prac-
titioners give them the tools they need to achieve their aspirations? Cooper insists on
the importance of women making decisions about their own lives. As more women
develop greater skills and decision-making power, reframing policy becomes easier. It
1 The purpose of this forum is to provide a space for amplifying work at the intersection of research
and practice for sustainable development and gender equity, connecting like-minded people and fostering
research and work synergies. To take a closer look, visit www.power inpra xis.com.

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A bottom-up approach toimprove women’s access totechnical…
is critical for those working in the TVET sector to listen to and involve women through-
out the process.
Working towardsmeeting the12th Plan’s goals
There is significant work to be done if India aspires to meet the 12th Plan’s goals.
Moreover, to achieve them in a socially just manner, greater efforts are required to
include and amplify women’s voices throughout the process. This is why a bottom-up
approach is beneficial, both because it would be neglectful not to engage with women
at the local or “operational” level, and because women should be centrally involved in
policymaking (Sabatier 1986; Witenstein 2017).
As Tushar Agrawal (2013) indicates, there are a number of issues impacting the
quality of vocational education and training in India which need to be addressed prior
to TVET expansion. Women’s inequitable access to TVET is one of the major prob-
lems Agrawal identifies regarding TVET provision in South Asia. We advocate bot-
tom-up policymaking in order to understand how women wish to access TVET. Thank-
fully, the Planning Commission (2013) recognises limits to women’s empowerment,
including historically imposed gender bias which has relegated women to particular
work roles and marginalised their workforce participation. While acknowledging these
biases is an important first step, it will be difficult to correct them without ground-level
empirical work leading to meaningful recommendations for action.
In order to advance this work, we share some insights from the initial stages of
our long-term study, which bridges non-formal education and TVET. We build on
Cooper’s (2018) insights to construct an argument for a bottom-up policy approach
to understand how women wish to access and participate in TVET. To help us
understand the viewpoints and reflections of the women, we use the notions of third-
space frameworks, described by Homi Bhaba (1990, 1994) and Witenstein and
Saito (2015) as an “in-between” space on the border of multiple spaces where more
accurate constructions of reality can be made salient, and scapes, coined by Arjun
Appadurai (1996) as a mechanism for making meaning of global and cultural flows
in a more fluid manner. According to Gijsbert Oonk (2000), these scapes provide
deeper insight into cultural adaptation in concert with globalisation. These concepts
(along with Cooper’s insights) allow us to go beyond simply acknowledging the
need for labour upskilling. They offer opportunities to critique gender biases, stereo-
types and patriarchal practices, while formulating new ideas about how to engage as
active participants in Indian society (Iyengar and Witenstein 2019). Based on these
insights, we offer some opportunities for moving forward by directly engaging with
women on the ground level, using a bottom-up approach.
Working withMahashakti Seva Kendra
To begin this endeavour, we worked with women at Mahashakti Seva Ken-
dra (MSK), a non-formal skilling programme in Bhopal. Given the huge number
of women joining the informal sector or dropping off the employment radar, we

M.A.Witenstein, R.Iyengar
1 3
decided to focus our study on Mahashakti Seva Kendra for a number of reasons.
First, one objective of this ongoing study is to find out what factors prevent women
and girls from joining the government’s TVET programmes. We interviewed par-
ticipants who would be eligible to meet programmatic requirements but are not cur-
rently attending any formal TVET programme. Second, the target population for the
study is women in the informal sector. We set out to understand their educational
needs and match their current and aspirational skill sets. Mahashakti was therefore a
meaningful non-profit to partner for this study.
Unsurprisingly, our participatory action research (PAR)2 work at MSK, which
explored women’s opportunities to engage with TVET, revealed considerable ten-
sions around the status of women in Indian society, in areas such as lifelong learn-
ing, work/employment, empowerment and decision-making (Iyengar and Witen-
stein 2019). Women often experience a conflict between their “home” and “work”
worlds, corresponding in part to the traditional and modern worlds. We witnessed
their desire to support their daughters in joining the skilled work force. Working
directly with women in this in-between space helped us understand how best to
frame upskilling opportunities for them.
MSK sits at the intersection of these worlds. Cultural expectations interact with
local and national aspirations to promote more women to skilled positions, creat-
ing both opportunities and tensions. Critical questions to consider include: “What
do the women want from these opportunities? Is programme participation more
about camaraderie than economic growth? Is it about increased independence and
agency?” Understanding the desires and needs of local women participating in these
programmes can provide local and state-level policymakers and ministries with
valuable insights. This knowledge can complement the work of policymakers and
bureaucrats, helping them to reach local communities and make a positive impact
on the lives of women and girls. A key question here is: “What core elements of a
TVET programme would be helpful for women?”
Participatory action research (PAR)
PAR allows researchers with policy flow expertise and knowledge of the Indian
education system to work with women in order to understand what they want from
TVET programmes and how to make the programmes accessible to them. It is criti-
cal to take note of what the women say they need, and to design the programmes
accordingly. Researchers and practitioners should interview women in such a way
as to determine what they need, above and beyond the day-to-day. It is also impor-
tant to challenge stereotypical models of gender. Positioning women’s lived experi-
ence as meaningful, purposeful and in flux is crucial to creating TVET programmes
that support women in current and future contexts. The following question uses
2 In a nutshell, participatory action research actively involves the people whose situation is being
researched in the investigation. This differs from an approach where the researcher gathers information
(by observing, interviewing etc.) and then goes away to interpret it.

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A bottom-up approach toimprove women’s access totechnical…
PAR to address a big-picture policy dilemma regarding women’s needs in TVET
programmes: “How do researchers and local women at an organisation like MSK
co-develop a set of useful propositions that support women’s needs in TVET pro-
grammes at local, state and national levels?”
The third space inconjunction withPAR
Tension in the third space creates new ideas, perceptions and perspectives (Witen-
stein and Saito 2015). This tension can give rise to both challenges and proactive
solutions. By capitalising on women’s experiences in this liminal space, we propose
a participatory model to support their needs throughout the TVET experience. The
goal is to harness the women’s lived experiences and insights to push towards policy
enhancements. It is important to ask women what role, if any, they might consider
playing in building policy. For example, one might ask: “Would you like to work
directly with the researchers when engaging with local, state and national actors?
Or would you prefer them to put together your ideas and take them to these actors?
What might that look like?” This leaves us with a major reflection question: “How
does PAR inform both on-the-ground work and TVET policy for women at local,
state and national levels?” Answering this question is the next step towards amplify-
ing women’s voices and acknowledging their needs in this in-between space where
they are finding their way in the skilled workforce.
Integrating scapes withthird spaces
Combining the concept of scapes (Appadurai 1996) with that of third spaces (Hig-
gins 2015) can provide further insight into how home and work life converge. This
can help develop new ideas to support TVET programmes to meet the needs of
women who wish to update their skills. In an article on identity construction among
language learners, Christina Higgins writes:
I began to reconsider whether the classic sociolinguistic domains such as
home, work, and the marketplace were really discrete domains at all, since the
everyday talk I recorded – and the signs and symbols around me – displayed
a hybridity that blended language varieties in fascinating ways (Higgins 2015,
p.374).
In this quote, Higgins describes how the scapes cross all different parts of life, using
language as an example. Higgins’s study shows how people take language and sym-
bols from one domain (for example work) and infuse it into other spaces (such as
the home or the marketplace), effectively intersecting scapes. They create non-linear
paths of acquiring knowledge, enhancing perspective and decision-making. Taking
this idea one step further, Higgins ties together scapes with third spaces:
Many language learners develop deep connections with people like themselves
– that is, other members of the L2 [second language] speaking communities

M.A.Witenstein, R.Iyengar
1 3
– finding alternative zones or third spaces for identity construction, including
in-between identities and transnational identities that are more closely tied to
others who share their experiences (Higgins 2015, p.379).
Drawing parallels with our current work, we observe that MSK women can work
within the shared-identity group to create a third space for identity construction,
illuminating how they perceive and understand TVET. These insights can then be
leveraged to impact policy from the bottom up.
Steps forward
The 12th Plan’s appeal to upskill women through TVET offers meaningful aspira-
tions, yet there is much important groundwork to be done if these goals are to be
met. We propose examining interconnected factors via a bottom-up approach that
can inform policy. In our opinion, this approach is the most promising for achieving
the Plan’s goals. We have illustrated how bottom-up approaches can be leveraged to
amplify women’s voices in order to develop policy that supports their needs, desires
and aspirations.
The framing of this research note allows researchers and practitioners to take the
next step by asking the following two policy and skill-oriented questions:
(1) If empowering women is critical to the success of this endeavour, in what ways
can/should they be involved in planning TVET programmes?
(2) What tools do women need to participate in and make decisions about TVET?
Future empirical and practical work to address these questions will inform policy to
support women in accessing TVET, helping to attain the upskilling goals set forth in
the 12th Plan. A practical and realistic approach is required to make changes in local
and policy contexts, starting at the ground level. Finally, researchers and practition-
ers must work with women in ways that acknowledge their ideas and lived experi-
ence at the intersection of tradition and the modern world. This will allow them to
develop meaningful insights to inform policy and make TVET a viable option for
more women, ultimately moving towards meeting the goals set out in the 12th Plan.
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M.A.Witenstein, R.Iyengar
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Matthew A. Witenstein is Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Administration at the
University of Dayton. He received his PhD in Higher Education Research from Claremont Graduate
University. Matt’s US work focuses on immigrants in higher education and international educational
experiences, while his international/comparative education research focuses on higher educational qual-
ity, organization and governance issues. He is co-editor of the Palgrave Macmillan book series “South
Asian Education Policy, Research and Practice”, Associate Editor of the journal Diaspora, Indigenous
and Minority Education, and author of numerous peer-reviewed articles (including in Teachers College
Record, About Campus and Ethnic and Racial Studies) and book chapters. Matt currently serves as Secre-
tary and Executive Board Member of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) while
having served CIES in various leadership roles for more than a decade and served on the Association
for the Study of Higher Education’s 2020 Program Committee. He has been an invited speaker at higher
education institutions, ministry and government agencies throughout the United States and South Asia.
Radhika Iyengar is Director of Education and Research Scholar at the Center for Sustainable Develop-
ment of Columbia University’s Earth Institute. She leads the Education for Sustainable Development ini-
tiatives as a practitioner, researcher, teacher and manager. Her research interests consist of conducting
evaluations of educational programmes and international educational development. In addition to direct-
ing education initiatives at the Center and fieldwork in over 10 countries, she contributes to the scientific
community focusing on international educational development with articles published in reputed journals
and reports that are used by both domestic and international stakeholders. She received a distinction from
Teachers College, Columbia University on her PhD dissertation and received her Master’s degree in Eco-
nomics from the Delhi School of Economics, India.