Moving Beyond Education for Women to Employment for Women: The 2030 Agenda to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of Gender Equality

The latest Human Development Index (2018) released by the United Nations Development Programme shows that India climbed one position to 130 out of 189 countries which only indicates a steady development. One of the major barriers to human development is gender inequality which persists at a global level. India’s slow progress and recent trends point out towards the fact that there is a huge gap between educational and employment opportunities in case of women. One of the indicators of sustainable development goals is gender equality without which the overall development of society will be incomplete. The paper thus tries to focus on the fact that women, despite representing in higher education in large number, do not have much access to employment opportunities which push them back in economic participation. Even if women have access to some professions, they are restricted to only women oriented professions like nursing and teacher training. The persistent gender inequality in India in terms of education and employment results in overall decrease in human development index at a global level. Despite many attempts by the government in form of policies and regulations, the patriarchal mindset of the society poses a hindrance in transformation of India from being a developing country to a developed country. In light of that, the paper suggests some measures to counteract the prevailing challenges to achieve the gender equality goal of sustainable development till 2030.