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By:

Anil D. Salve

21 March 2026 at 2:41:09 pm

Girls Top Exams, Then What?

Every year, India proudly celebrates the remarkable academic achievements of girls. Across board examinations, universities, and competitive entrance tests, female students consistently outperform their male counterparts with discipline, dedication, and academic excellence. The recent CBSE Class 12 results once again reflected this trend, with girls recording a pass percentage significantly higher than boys. At first glance, this appears to be a powerful success story of modern India....

Girls Top Exams, Then What?

Every year, India proudly celebrates the remarkable academic achievements of girls. Across board examinations, universities, and competitive entrance tests, female students consistently outperform their male counterparts with discipline, dedication, and academic excellence. The recent CBSE Class 12 results once again reflected this trend, with girls recording a pass percentage significantly higher than boys. At first glance, this appears to be a powerful success story of modern India. Increased access to education, awareness campaigns, government schemes, and changing parental attitudes have enabled millions of girls to enter classrooms and pursue higher education. Families today invest heavily in the education of their daughters through private schooling, coaching classes, digital learning, hostels, and university studies. However, behind this encouraging progress lies a serious national concern: if girls are consistently excelling in education, why are they still underrepresented in leadership positions, entrepreneurship, research, administration, politics, and the workforce at large? This is not a debate about competition between men and women. It is a question about whether India is fully utilizing the intellectual potential of millions of educated women. Over the past three decades, girls have repeatedly demonstrated strong academic consistency. Schools and colleges produce thousands of female toppers every year. Universities report increasing female enrolment across multiple streams, including medicine, engineering, law, and management. Yet this educational success is not reflected equally in professional spaces. The contradiction is visible everywhere. Classrooms are full of female achievers, but leadership positions in industries, government institutions, start-ups, research laboratories, and corporate sectors continue to be dominated by men. Somewhere between graduation and employment, a large number of talented women quietly disappear from the professional pipeline. One of the major reasons behind this gap is the social transition many women face after completing their education. During school and college years, families encourage daughters to score well and make the family proud. But once graduation approaches, the focus often shifts from career planning and higher studies to marriage discussions, family expectations, and social pressure. Marriage Prospects In many households, education is still subconsciously viewed as a means to improve marriage prospects rather than a pathway to professional independence. As a result, many academically brilliant girls slowly step away from career ambitions before even entering the workforce. Marriage itself is not the problem. The real issue is the pressure and timing associated with it. Across several parts of India, young women continue to face social expectations regarding marriage much earlier than men. Concerns about “the right age,” social reputation, or family expectations often influence important career decisions. Many women preparing for competitive examinations, research careers, civil services, medicine, or corporate professions experience interruptions due to marriage-related responsibilities. These setbacks are rarely discussed publicly because they happen silently within families and social structures. The challenge becomes even greater in rural areas and smaller towns. Many girls from semi-urban and rural India achieve excellent academic results despite limited resources. Yet after graduation, they encounter barriers such as lack of nearby employment opportunities, unsafe transportation, conservative social environments, restrictions on relocating alone, and limited professional exposure. For such women, talent alone is not enough. Geography itself becomes a limitation. Another emerging trend in India is the rise of highly educated homemakers. Many women complete professional degrees in engineering, management, law, science, or medicine but later discontinue their careers due to childcare responsibilities, relocation after marriage, lack of family support, or work-life imbalance. While choosing family responsibilities is a personal decision that deserves respect, the broader concern is whether India is creating enough support systems for women who wish to continue their careers after marriage and motherhood. Losing Productivity This issue is not only social-it is deeply economic. When educated women remain outside the workforce, the country loses productivity, innovation, entrepreneurial talent, leadership potential, and research capacity. No nation can achieve sustainable development while underutilizing half of its intellectual population. Countries with higher female workforce participation often show stronger economic growth, better child education outcomes, improved healthcare indicators, and greater social development. Women’s professional participation contributes directly to national progress and economic resilience. India has already succeeded in bringing girls into classrooms. The next challenge is ensuring that they remain visible beyond classrooms. This requires structural and social change at multiple levels. First, women need stronger career continuity support through flexible work policies, maternity support, remote work opportunities, and career re-entry programs. Second, safer and more inclusive work environments are essential, especially in smaller cities and semi-urban regions where transportation and workplace safety remain concerns. Third, family mindsets must evolve. (The writer is the Principal, Podar International School, Ausa, Latur.)

SIP vs STP vs SWP

In mutual funds, investors often hear three important terms - SIP, STP and SWP. These may sound technical, but they are actually simple and powerful facilities provided by mutual funds. They help investors invest, transfer and withdraw money in a disciplined and automated manner.


Systematic Investment Plan

This is the most commonly known concept. In an SIP, a fixed amount is automatically debited from your bank account on a fixed date and invested into selected mutual fund schemes.


For example, if a 30-year-old investor starts investing INR 10,000 per month for retirement and continues till the age of 55, the investment period is 25 years. Assuming a long-term return of around 12% per annum, this monthly investment can grow to approximately INR 1.70 crores.


Please note, INR 10,000 is only a small amount used for illustration. Your SIP amount should be sufficient for your goals. Ideally, investors should try to invest at least 30% of their in-hand monthly income.


The biggest benefit of SIP is discipline. You do not have to remember to invest every month. The process is automated. SIP also helps you invest through market ups and downs, reducing the stress of timing the market. That is why SIP is also popularly called Sapna-In-Progress.


Systematic Transfer Plan

In SIP, money moves from your bank account to a mutual fund. In STP, money moves from one mutual fund scheme to another.


This is especially useful when you have a lumpsum amount but do not want to invest it into equity funds in one shot. For example, an investor has INR 20 lakhs to invest for the long term. He may worry about market volatility if the entire amount is invested at one go.


In such a case, the money can first be parked in a debt mutual fund, and then gradually transferred to an equity mutual fund through STP. For example, INR 40,000 can be transferred every week over around 50 weeks. STP is flexible in terms of duration, frequency, amount and choice of schemes.


STP gives comfort, automation and gradual participation in equity markets.


Systematic Withdrawal Plan

This is the exact reverse of SIP. In SIP, money goes from your bank account to a mutual fund. In SWP, money comes from your mutual fund to your bank account at regular intervals.


SWP can be very useful after retirement. Suppose an investor has built a corpus of around INR 10 crores by the age of 55. He can set up an SWP to receive, say, INR 5 lakhs per month for his regular expenses.


If the corpus is invested wisely with proper asset allocation, the investor can receive regular income and still allow the balance corpus to grow over time. To understand the power of this, consider an actual scheme’s past performance. A corpus of INR 10 crores would have grown to around INR 30 crores over 15 years, even after the investor withdrew INR 5 lakhs every month.


In simple words, SIP helps you invest regularly, STP helps you transfer wisely, and SWP helps you withdraw systematically.


Used properly, these three tools can make wealth creation and retirement planning more disciplined, automated and peaceful.


(The author is Chartered Accountant and CFA (USA). Financial advisor. Views personal. He could be reached on 9833133605)

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