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Seminar on progress of literacy in india: what the Census 2001 preveals
Maharashtra: A Socio-special Analysis of Literacy Trends With Special Reference to 2001 Census
Barnali Biswas and Saraswati Raju
Introduction
The liberating potential of education has been widely discussed by numerous researchers in the recent years. Indeed there is a large body of empirical evidences demonstrating how female literacy can be a powerful social indicator. In this context India's progress in literacy has been tremendous during the last five decades. However, a feature that remains consistent in the literacy situations in India is the existence of large disparities in literacy achievements between different sections of populations, based on gender and residence. Moreover, despite changing absolute levels in literacy the relative positioning of various states have remained remarkably unchanged.[1] The present study attempts to explore if even in relatively advanced locale such as Maharashtra this stability continues to prevail. We are particularly interested in interrogating the historical embeddedness of the phenomena and the space and gender interface in sex disparities in literacy.
For the first time after independence, the absolute number of the illiterates has gone down in 2001. It has declined from 328.16 lakh to 296.20 lakh. The rate of literacy in India has increased from 17 percent in 1951 to 65 percent in 2001. This increase has been even more dramatic for the female literacy that has increased from 8 percent to 54 percent during the same period. Female literacy for 2001 is comparable to 1991's level for males. Three fourth of the male and more than half of the female population aged 7 and over are literate in the country today. With the faster growth of female literacy rate, the gap between the male and female literacy is fast becoming narrower (Table 1).
Table 1. Growth of literacy in India 1951-2001
Year
Total
Male
Female
Sex disparity
1951
16.67
24.95
7.93
0.54
1961
24.02
34.44
12.95
0.48
1971
29.45
39.45
18.69
0.38
1981
36.23
46.89
24.82
0.33
1991
42.49
52.68
32.52
0.27
2001
65.38
75.85
54.16
0.22
Note: Literacy rate for 1951, 1961, 1971 and 1981 related to population aged 5 and above. Literacy rate of 1991 and 2001 related to population aged 7 and above.
The Regional Scene
The country level data masks large variations across states and locations. The proverbial BIMARU states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh still stand out clearly as the region with literacy levels lower than the national average accompanied with high sex disparities. This pattern remains uniform for rural and urban areas. Also, despite an overall increase in the literacy over the decades, the relative positions of the states have not been shifted much. Among the major Indian states, Kerela is ahead of all the states throughout the period from 1981-2001 in terms of both male and female literacy and declining sex disparity. Goa and Maharashtra maintained their second and third positions respectively whereas the backward states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa have moved downward. (Table 2 and 3).
Table 2. Major States ranked according to Male Literacy in India 1981-2001.
1981
1991
2001
States
Male
Rank
Male
Ranks
Male
Ranks
Kerala
87.73
1
93.62
1
94.2
1
Goa
76.01
2
83.64
2
88.88
2
Maharashtra
69.65
3
76.56
3
86.27
3
Tamil Nadu
68.05
4
73.75
5
82.33
5
Gujarat
65.14
5
73.13
6
80.5
6
Himachal
64.27
6
75.36
4
86.02
4
West Bengal
59.93
7
67.81
9
77.58
8
Karnataka
58.73
8
67.26
8
76.29
11
Haryana
58.51
9
69.1
7
79.25
7
Orissa
56.45
10
63.09
11
75.95
12
Punjab
55.56
11
65.66
10
75.63
13
M. P.
48.42
12
58.42
12
77.33
9
U. P.
47.45
13
55.73
13
70.23
15
A. P.
46.83
14
55.13
14
70.85
14
Bihar
46.6
15
52.49
16
64.13
16
Rajasthan
44.77
16
54.99
15
76.46
10
Table 3. Major States ranked according to Female Literacy in India 1981-2001.
1981
1991
2001
States
Female
Rank
Female
Rank
Female
Rank
Kerala
75.65
1
86.17
1
87.86
1
Goa
55.17
2
67.09
2
75.51
2
Maharashtra
41.01
3
52.32
3
67.51
4
Tamil Nadu
40.43
4
51.33
5
64.55
5
Punjab
39.70
5
50.41
6
63.55
6
Gujarat
38.46
6
48.64
7
58.60
8
Himachal
37.72
7
52.13
4
68.08
3
West Bengal
36.07
8
46.56
8
60.22
7
Karnataka
33.17
9
44.34
9
57.45
9
Haryana
26.93
10
40.47
10
56.31
10
Orissa
25.14
11
34.68
11
50.97
13
A. P.
24.16
12
32.72
12
51.17
13
M. P.
19.00
13
28.85
13
50.28
11
U. P.
17.19
14
25.31
14
42.98
15
Bihar
16.52
15
22.89
15
36.47
16
Rajasthan
14.00
16
20.44
16
44.34
14
Source: Census of India, 1981, 1991; Primary census abstract. Census of India,
2001, Provisional Population Totals.
Bihar continues to occupy the bottommost position in terms of male literacy over the last decade. Although, female literacy of Rajasthan was lower than Bihar in 1991, its position has been taken over by Bihar once again in 2001 with lowest female literacy rate of 33.55 percent. In fact, the maximum increase in number of female illiterates over the decade has taken place in Bihar. The rank correlations for both male and female literacy rates show an overall temporal stability over the decades (r = 0.97 and r = 0.89 respectively over the period 1981-91 and 1991-2000 for male literacy rate, the corresponding values for female literacy rate are 0.94 and 0.93 respectively). Sex disparities between male and female literacy rates over the period also show very high positive correlation. The correlation coefficients for the period 1981-1991 and 1991-2000 are 0.99 and 0.98 respectively. What is being demonstrated is the persistent disparate relation between male and the female literates. Although Rajasthan has improved in terms of female literacy in 2001, it still occupies dismal position among all the states in case of sex disparity over the decades (Table 4).
Table 4. Sex disparity in literacy rate in India, 1981-2001.
States
1981
1991
2001
India
0.35
0.29
0.22
Andhra Pradesh
0.35
0.29
0.20
Bihar
0.53
0.44
0.33
Goa
0.21
0.15
0.12
Gujarat
0.31
0.25
0.21
Haryana
0.42
0.32
0.22
Himachal Pradesh
0.31
0.23
0.17
Karnataka
0.32
0.25
0.18
Kerala
0.11
0.07
0.06
Madhya Pradesh
0.48
0.39
0.27
Maharashtra
0.32
0.24
0.17
Orissa
0.44
0.34