Education as an Enabler: Exploring the Link between Literacy and Sustainable Development Participation among Rural Women in Hill Regions of Uttarakhand, India

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-561-4_11How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Rural Women; Education; Sustainability; Government Schemes; Technology Use; Digital Inclusion; Uttarakhand; India

Abstract

This study investigates how educational attainment influences rural women’s awareness of sustainability-related government programs and their adoption of digital technology in the Ramnagar block of Nainital district, Uttarakhand, India. Drawing from a sample of 159 rural women engaged in micro and small-scale enterprises including tailoring, food processing, dairy, and handicrafts—the research adopts a descriptive and quantitative approach. Primary data were collected through structured questionnaires using a snowball sampling technique.

Three core variables were examined: education level (independent), awareness of sustainability-linked government schemes, and digital technology usage (dependent). Descriptive statistics were used to assess educational profiles and awareness levels, while Chi-square tests were conducted to explore associations between education and the dependent variables. The results indicate that while awareness and technology use were somewhat higher among more educated women, the relationships were not statistically significant. This suggests that factors beyond education such as local digital infrastructure, targeted training, or community outreach, may play a more critical role in enabling sustainable participation.

The study highlights the need for more inclusive policy interventions that address structural barriers to digital inclusion and information access for rural women, regardless of their education level.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Subiya Naaz
AU  - Vijay Kumar
AU  - Deeksha Pant
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/04/23
TI  - Education as an Enabler: Exploring the Link between Literacy and Sustainable Development Participation among Rural Women in Hill Regions of Uttarakhand, India
BT  - Proceedings of the Indo-Bhutan Social Science Conference 2025 (IBSSC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 101
EP  - 107
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-561-4_11
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-561-4_11
ID  - Naaz2026
ER  -