Youth Transitions - Skills, Work and Family Formation: Preliminary Findings from the Round 5 Survey in India

Round 5 Longitudinal Youth Transitions: Skills Work and Family Formation Fact Sheet

This fact sheet presents findings from the fifth round of the Young Lives survey of children in United Andhra Pradesh in 2016. Young Lives has followed two cohorts of children since 2002, most recently focusing on our Older Cohort (22-year-olds in 2016) to explore issues related to education, digital skills, transitions to the labour market, and on marriage and fertility. Given that a large and growing segment of India’s population is under 25 years, attainment of education and skills development are critical to ensuring that this turns into a demographic dividend not a liability. What these findings reveal is a young generation experiencing more education, but that poorer socio-economic groups are still leaving education sooner, and are more likely to be in work rather than any form of study, than more advantaged groups. Young women remain very much more likely to be married than young men, with many still marrying below the legal age. Gender and socio-economic divides are evident in access to the new technologies that are increasingly important to 21st century opportunities

Key Findings:

A substantial difference in the rate of enrolment in education and training at age 22 exists between young men (26%) and young women (16%). While 35% of young people had either completed or were pursuing higher education at age 22, 22% of the Older Cohort had discontinued education at primary or upper primary level. More men (76%) were engaged in economic activity by age 22 than women of the same age (47%). This was paralleled by more women (56%) than men (11%) being married, the highest rates being among Backward Class (54%) and rural young women (66%). Participation in agricultural and non agricultural sectors combined is significantly higher among Scheduled Castes (70%), poorer households or bottom wealth tercile households (81%) and those living in rural locations (68%). Around 18% of 22-year-olds are using computers, 4% tablets, and 21% internet, and 34% are using mobile phones with internet access, although there are substantial gender and socio-economic inequalities. The use of mobile phones with internet access is three times higher among youth from top wealth tercile households (55%), than among youth from bottom wealth tercile households (17%).