The Indian Government’s 12th Five Year Plan features ambitious goals regarding the upskilling of women in India. While the Plan acknowledges Indian women’s continued inequality, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) programmes (a main avenue for upskilling) pose considerable challenges. There is significant work to be done if India aspires to meet the 12th Plan’s goals. Moreover, to achieve them in a socially just manner, greater efforts are required to include and amplify women’s voices throughout the process. In pursuit of this aim, the authors of this research note share insights from the first stages of their study of an upskilling programme in the non-formal education sector. They argue for a bottom-up approach to understand how women wish to participate in this programme and in government-recognised TVET more broadly. To understand the women’s perspectives, the authors use the notions of third-space frameworks and “scapes”. These concepts go beyond simply acknowledging the need for labour upskilling and offer opportunities to critique gender biases, stereotypes and patriarchal practices, while formulating new ideas about how to engage as active participants in Indian society. Based on these insights, the authors offer a path forward by directly engaging with women on the ground level, using a bottom-up approach.

印度政府的“十二五计划”提出了关于提高印度妇女技能的宏伟目标。尽管该计划承认印度妇女继续存在不平等现象，但技术和职业教育与培训（TVET）计划（提高技能的主要途径）提出了相当大的挑战。如果印度渴望实现“十二五”计划的目标，则有大量工作要做。此外，为了以一种社会公正的方式实现这些目标，需要付出更大的努力，以在整个过程中纳入和扩大妇女的声音。为了实现这一目标，本研究报告的作者分享了他们对非正规教育领域的技能提升计划研究的第一阶段的见解。他们主张采用一种自下而上的方法来理解妇女希望如何参与该计划以及更广泛地被政府认可的职业技术教育与培训。第三空间框架和“花scape ”。这些概念不仅简单地认识到需要提高劳动力技能，而且还提供了批评性别偏见，陈规定型观念和重男轻女习俗的机会，同时提出了有关如何积极参与印度社会的新思路。基于这些见解，作者通过使用自下而上的方法与地面上的女性直接接触，提供了一条前进的道路。