Imposed self-selection in edu is economically debilitating

A fairly common sight at industrial training institutes (ITIs) across India is women sitting at sewing machines and men working at industrial machines.So the question is- is there an active selection process that takes place or do boys and girls automatically take their slots?

Today the manufacturing sector in India languishing as it is still faces a shortage of skilled labour that runs into millions. Imposed self-selection at the most basic level of education could be the root cause of some of our problems.
The picture of higher education for women in India is quite startling. Since Independence, the enrolment of women in colleges has increased from 10% in 1947 to about 41% in 2010. But this number is still 20% lower than the enrolment rates for men. Moreover, a report by the department of science and technology highlights that women in India are being over-represented in the humanities and medicine and significantly under-represented in sectors such as engineering.
The only reason that affors cheer is that India has a better male-female ratio for engineers than the US. But this is not the time for chest-thumping, because the situation is actually quite grim. Of the total women engineers that graduate, only about 3.5% find jobs in mainstream engineering businesses. For more, watch the accompanying videos.