Women & Islamic Cultures Family, Law and Politics

According to the Demographic and Health Sur-

veys (Table 1), women’s education and workforce

participation, as measured by mean years of educa-

tion and percentage of all women who report

working for a salary, vary regionally for Hindu and

Muslim women alike. In general, within most

states Muslim women have lower education and

considerably less work participation than Hindu

women. However, in two of the largest states of

the south, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh,

Muslim women have higher education than Hindu

women and Muslim women’s education and work-

force participation in the southern states are higher

than those of Hindu women in the north or the

east.

In Bangladesh, Hindu women have higher edu-

cation and workforce participation than Muslim

240 household division of labor

women. These levels and religious differentials are

similar to the states of India that surround Bang-

ladesh, specifically those of West Bengal. Overall

levels of educational attainment are low every-

where in Pakistan but there is a range in the levels

of workforce participation among Muslim women.

The proportion of Hindus in Pakistan is negligible

and it is not possible to estimate rates from national

surveys. As with Bangladesh and areas of India

surrounding it, perhaps more striking than the vari-

ation within Pakistan is the similarity with contigu-

ous regions across the border – Muslim women in

both Punjabs (India and Pakistan) have exactly the

same workforce participation rate of 13 percent.

Sindh and Balochistan have somewhat higher rates

than Punjab and levels are similar to the neighbor-

ing region of Rajasthan.

Table 1: Mean years of education and percentage of women working for salary by religion and state, ever-married

women, Bangladesh (1996–7), India (1998–9), Pakistan (1990–1)

Average Years of Education % Working for Salary

Hindu Muslim Hindu Muslim

Bangladesh 5 3 44 19

India, East

Assam 4.0 2.4 22 10

Bihar 2.0 1.0 19 15

Manipur 5.9 2.5 54 13

Meghalaya 2.9 1.2 30 –

Mizoram 3.2 5.3 22 33

Nagaland 2.7 0.9 34 27

Orissa 2.9 2.5 26 17

Sikkim 3.7 4.2 19 13

West Bengal 4.1 2.2 27 17

Arunachalpradesh 3.9 1.7 16 11

Tripura 5.0 2.6 19 15

India, North

Gujarat 4.3 4.3 33 20

Haryana 4.0 0.8 10 3

Himachal Pradesh 5.2 2.5 9 9

Jammu 3.9 1.8 10 15

Madhya Pradesh 2.5 3.2 33 20

Punjab 6.1 2.2 11 13

Rajasthan 2.0 1.2 15 19

Uttar Pradesh 2.7 1.8 11 10

New Delhi 7.5 3.6 20 11

India, South

Andhra Pradesh 2.8 3.8 46 19

Goa 6.1 4.4 33 22

Karnataka 4.0 3.2 38 35

Kerala 8.3 6.4 31 8

Maharashtra 4.6 4.8 38 19

Tamil Nadu 4.4 5.3 46 23

Pakistan

Punjab – 2 – 13

Sindh – 2 – 17

NWFP – 1 – 3

Balochistan – 0 – 19

Source: author’s calculations from Demographic and Health Surveys, Bangladesh, 1996–7, India 1998–9, Pakistan 1990–1.