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Seminar on progress of literacy in india:
what the Census 2001 preveals
NIEPA, New Delhi, October 05, 2002
Some Significant Features of Literacy
Data of the 2001 Census and Projection of Literacy Rate for the Population of
age group 15+
ABL Srivastava
Chief Consultant (RESU)
Ed. CIL's TSG –
DPEP, New Delhi, INDIA
1.Growth in literacy
The literacy rate of the population aged 7+ according to the 2001
population census is 65.4 whereas it was only 52.2 in 1991. The growth has been
much faster compared to that of the previous decade since the literacy rate
increased by 13.2 percentage points between 1991 and 2001, whereas it had
increased only by 8.6 percentage points between 1981 and 1991. In fact, the growth during 1991-2001
exceeded that of every previous decade.
Since the growth in terms of percentage points generally slows down as
one approaches the ceiling of 100%, the accelerated growth during 1991-2001 can
be considered as a great achievement. Another remarkable feature of the results
on literacy in 2001 census is that, for the first time, the number of
non-literates declined between 1991 and 2001, instead of increasing. Upto 1991,
in spite of some increase in literacy rate between two consecutive census
years, the number of non-literates did not decline, but continued to increase.
This trend was reversed in 2001 because of the rapid rise in the number of
literates and some slowing down of population growth rate during
1991-2001. Between 1991 and 2001, while
the number of literates increased by 203.6 million (that is, by 56.8%), the
number of non-literates decreased by 32.0 million (that is, by 9.7%). It is
expected that the trend of decline in the number of non-literates will continue
and the size of non-literate population will diminish substantially in the
years to come.
2.Gender difference
Table 1 shows the literacy rate in the age group 7+ for the census
years 1981, 1991 and 2001, and Table 2 shows the number of literates and
non-literates in 1991 and 2001.
Table 1:
Literacy Rate for the population of age 7+ in 1981, 1991 and 2001
|
|
Literacy
rate |
Increase
|
|
1981
|
1991
|
2001
|
1981-91
|
1991-2001
|
|
Male |
56.4
|
64.1
|
75.9
|
7.7
|
11.8
|
|
Female |
29.8
|
39.3
|
54.2
|
9.5
|
14.9
|
|
Total
|
43.6
|
52.2
|
65.4
|
8.6
|
13.2
|
|
Gender gap (M-F)
|
26.6
|
24.8
|
21.7
|
-
|
-
|
Table 2: Number
of literates and non-literates of age 7+ in 1991 and 2001
|
|
1991
|
2001
|
Increase
1991-2001 |
%
Increase 1991-2001 |
|
Number of literates (in millions)
|
|
Male |
229.0
|
337.0
|
108.0
|
47.2
|
|
Female |
129.4
|
225.0
|
95.6
|
73.9
|
|
Total
|
358.4
|
562.0
|
203.6
|
56.8
|
|
Number of non-literates (in
millions) |
|
Male |
128.1
|
106.6
|
-21.5
|
-16.8
|
|
Female |
200.1
|
189.6
|
-10.5
|
-5.2
|
|
Total
|
328.2
|
296.2
|
-32.0
|
-9.8
|
The literacy rate of males is 75.85 and of females, 54.16 in 2001.
The gender gap has reduced slightly compared to what it was in 1981 and
1991. The highest difference between
the literacy rate of males and females of age 7+ was 26.62 in 1981; it reduced
to 24.84 in 1991 and further to 21.70 in 2001. Apparently there has been
greater progress in improvement of literacy rate of females over the last two
decades, since it increased from 29.76 in 1981 to 54.16 in 2001 (i.e. by 24.40
percentage points), whereas the literacy rate of males increased from 56.38 in
1981 to 75.85 in 2001, that is, by 19.47 percentage points. But even with the greater increase in the
literacy rate of females, the gender gap is fairly large, since the number of
non-literate females is 189.6 million against 106.7 million non-literate males,
that is, there are 83 million more non-literate females.
The relatively higher growth in literacy rate of females (14.9
points) compared to that of males (11.7 points) between 1991 and 2001, hides
the fact that between 1991 and 2001, the increase in the number of literate
females was a little less than the increase in the number of literate males.
While the number of literate males increased by 108.0 million between 1991 and
2001, the corresponding increase in the number of literate females was by 95.6
million, which is 88.5% of the former. Since there were 200 non-literate
females of age 7+ as against 128 non-literate males in 1991, the gap was too
large to bridge. In a way, the gap has widened as the number of non-literate
males decreased by 21.4 million between 1991 and 2001, while the number of
non-literate females decreased by only 10.5 million over this period. The
reason for slower progress made in reduction of the number of non-literate
females can be traced to the difference in enrolment ratios and dropout rates
of boys and girls at the primary stage. According to the National Family Health
Survey (NFHS-2) while 85.2% boys in the
age group 6-10 were attending school, only 78.3% girls were doing so in
1998-99. The same survey showed that while the median number of years of
schooling was 5.5 for males of age 6+, it was only 1.6 for females of age 6+.
Among the total students enrolled in classes I-V in 1999-2000, only 43.6% were
girls and the Gross Enrolment Ratio was 104.1 for boys against 85.2 for girls,
according to the Ministry of HRD statistical report for 1999-2000. The dropout
rate also has been a little higher for girls; while 38.7% of boys entering
grade I dropped out before grade V, 42.3% girls did so (according to the same
Ministry of HRD statistics for the year 1999-2000).
3.State to state variations in literacy rate
The literacy rate varies considerably
across the states. While Kerala remains on the top with 90.9% literacy rate,
Bihar is at the bottom with 47.5% literacy rate. In 1991 also, it had the
lowest literacy rate of 37.5% among the states and Union Territories. Except
Bihar, all the states and Union Territories which had literacy rate below 50%
in 1991, are now in 'over 50%' bracket. Of the states and Union Territories
which were close to or below all India literacy rate of 52.2 in 1991, some have
made tremendous progress while in others the progress has been rather tardy.
Table 3 shows the literacy rate of these states and UTs in 1991 and 2001.
Table
3: Literacy rate of the below average states
for
the population of age 7+ in 2001
|
|
1991
|
2001
|
Increase
1991-2001 |
Gender
gap |
|
States
|
Male
|
Female
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
Total
|
1991
|
2001
|
|
Rajasthan |
55.0
|
20.4
|
38.6
|
76.5
|
44.3
|
61.0
|
22.4
|
34.6
|
32.1
|
|
Uttar Pradesh |
54.8
|
24.4
|
40.7
|
70.2
|
43.0
|
57.4
|
16.7
|
30.4
|
27.3
|
|
Bihar |
51.4
|
22.0
|
37.5
|
60.3
|
33.6
|
47.5
|
10.0
|
29.4
|
26.8
|
|
Arunachal Pradesh |
51.5
|
29.7
|
41.6
|
64.1
|
44.2
|
54.7
|
13.1
|
21.8
|
19.8
|
|
Meghalaya |
53.1
|
44.8
|
49.1
|
66.1
|
60.4
|
63.3
|
14.2
|
8.3
|
5.7
|
|
Assam |
61.9
|
43.0
|
52.9
|
71.9
|
56.0
|
64.3
|
11.4
|
18.9
|
15.9
|
|
Jharkhand |
55.8
|
25.5
|
41.4
|
67.9
|
39.4
|
54.1
|
12.7
|
30.3
|
28.6
|
|
Orissa |
63.1
|
34.7
|
49.1
|
76.0
|
51.0
|
63.6
|
14.5
|
28.4
|
25.0
|
|
Chhatisgarh |
58.1
|
27.5
|
42.9
|
77.9
|
52.4
|
65.2
|
22.3
|
30.6
|
25.5
|
|
Madhya Pradesh |
58.5
|
29.4
|
44.7
|
76.8
|
50.3
|
64.1
|
19.4
|
29.1
|
26.5
|
|
Dadra & Nagar Haveli
|
53.6
|
27.0
|
40.7
|
73.3
|
43.0
|
60.0
|
19.3
|
26.6
|
30.3
|
|
Andhra Pradesh |
55.1
|
32.7
|
44.1
|
70.9
|
51.2
|
61.1
|
17.0
|
22.4
|
19.7
|
|
INDIA
|
64.1
|
39.3
|
52.2
|
76.0
|
54.3
|
65.5
|
13.3
|
24.9
|
21.7
|
Incidentally, these are the States and UTs, which are even now below
the all India literacy rate of 65.4. The literacy rate in Assam is close to the
all India figure in both 1991 and 2001.Bihar and Jharkhand are the only states
in the above group in which the decadal increase is the lowest. The most significant increase has taken
place in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar
Pradesh, which are known to have been backward in education. Orissa and
Meghalaya also made significant progress, though not to the same extent as some
other states. In Rajasthan, there have been some noteworthy initiatives in
education during the late eighties and nineties such as Lok Jumbish and Shiksha
Karmi projects, which have apparently made visible impact.In Madhya Pradesh
also, the Education Guarantee Scheme, the District Primary Education Programme
and programmes like Mahila Samakhaya have apparently made some impact. Among the new states, Jharkhand and
Chhatisgarh are both ahead of the states from which they were carved out, in
respect of both male and female literacy rates. These are the tribal parts of
the original states which are generally more backward, but it seems that in
literacy they have benefited significantly from the educational activities of
the missionaries and state Departments of Tribal Welfare. Uttaranchal is also
far ahead of Uttar Pradesh from which it was carved out, showing that the hilly
and tribal areas even though economically backward, have been relatively better
off in education.
In respect of female literacy, it is again Bihar and Jharkhand,
which are at the bottom (33.6% in Bihar and 39.4% in Jharkhand). The states
where the gender gap is quite large (25% points or more) are Rajasthan, Uttar
Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhatisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, the gender
gap in these states being in the range of 25 to 32 percentage points. In 1991,
the state with lowest female literacy rate was Rajasthan (20.4) followed by
Bihar (22.0) and Uttar Pradesh (24.4). Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh and Madhya
Pradesh have achieved maximum decadal growth in female literacy (23.9, 24.9 and
20.9 respectively). However, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Orissa and Andhra
Pradesh are not far behind, as the decadal increase in their female literacy
rate is in the range of 16 to 19 percentage points. Even though the states with
very low female literacy have made good progress in bridging the gender gap,
they require some more concerted efforts to reduce the gap further in the
future. The enrolment and retention of girls in these states must increase and
there should be more emphasis on adult literacy programmes for females.
4.Past trend in literacy
Having presented some of the significant features of literacy data
available at this stage from the 2001 census, let us now examine the trend in
literacy over the period 1961-2001. The literacy rate was as low as 28.3 for
the age group 5+ in 1961; it has now more than doubled to 65.4 for the age
group 7+ in 2001. Table 4 shows the literacy rate for the age groups 7+ and 15+
for the census years 1961 to 2001 and for the years 1995/96, 1997 and 1998
based on NSS data. For 2001, the literacy rate for age 15+ is obtained by
simple extrapolation.
Table
4: Literacy rate of the population in the age groups 7+ and 15+, 1961 to 2001
|
Year
|
Literacy
Rate (Age 7+) |
Literacy
rate (Age 15+) |
Gender
difference (M-F) |
|
|
Male
|
Female
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
Total
|
Age7+
|
Age15+
|
|
1961
|
|