INEQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY IN FEMALE EDUCATION IN INDIA

Abstract

This dissertation presents an augmented economic model for estimating Inequality of Opportunity (IOp) in education, focusing exclusively on the female population in India. Building upon the ex-ante IOp framework of Mehta et al. (2025), the model introduces three novel contributions: (i) restricting the study population to females, thereby converting gender from a circumstance variable to a sample selection criterion; (ii) modelling education expenditure as both a distinct outcome and a mediating mechanism through which circumstance-driven disadvantage translates into attainment inequality; and (iii) leveraging the NSS 80th Round Comprehensive Modular Survey on Education (CMS-E, 2025), which uniquely provides itemised individual-level education spending data. The analysis employs parametric (OLS) and non-parametric (type-mean) approaches to IOp measurement, supplemented by a CART decision tree for type identification, Shapley decomposition for circumstance attribution, and a cross-regional nexus regression linking expenditure IOp to attainment IOp. The results indicate that circumstances beyond a female student's control explain approximately 50.6 per cent of total attainment inequality and 62.4 per cent of total education expenditure inequality under the parametric approach. The Shapley decomposition reveals that household economic status (UMPCE quintile) is the single largest contributor to female educational IOp, followed by geographic region and social group. The nexus regression yields a positive and substantial coefficient 6 (beta = 1.21, R-squared = 0.71), supporting the hypothesis that regions with higher expenditure IOp exhibit correspondingly higher attainment IOp for females.