Significant gains in women education, digital access, and economic agency but social constraints persist, NFHS-6 finds

📌 Summary:

• National Family Health Survey (NFHS-6), 2023–24 data reveal a complex story of Indian women — large gains in education, digital access and economic agency alongside persistent social constraints

• 73.7% of women have attended school (NFHS-5: 71.8%); women with over 10 years of schooling rose from 41% to 46.4%

• Internet use among women has nearly doubled — from 33.2% (NFHS-5) to 64.3% (NFHS-6) — pointing to a sharp narrowing of the digital gender gap

• 20.1% of women aged 20–24 years were married before the legal age of 18 — a modest improvement from 23.3% in NFHS-5

• Persistent gaps flagged: low property ownership among women, continued early marriage, and disproportionate burden of family planning

• Findings important for tracking progress on SDG-5 (Gender Equality), the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006, and women-focused schemes (Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, PM-JAY, etc.)

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS1 — Role of women and women's organisations; population and associated issues; GS2 — Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections; mechanisms for protection of women.

📝 Prelims Facts:

• NFHS is conducted by the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, as nodal agency under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

• NFHS-6 covers 2023–24; NFHS-5 covered 2019–21

• Legal age of marriage in India: 18 (women) and 21 (men) under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006

• NFHS is a key data source for India's monitoring of SDG indicators and several national programmes (NHM, POSHAN Abhiyaan, etc.)

• “Internet use” in NFHS measures the proportion who have ever used the internet

🔑 Key Term: Digital Gender Divide — the gap between women and men in access to and use of digital technologies; the NFHS-6 doubling of women's internet use signals significant narrowing in India.