Educating the woman ensures that the future generations get educated too. Female literacy and education impacts every spare of the nation’s progress. A recent survey has shown where India lags behind.
Celebrated annually on 8 September, the International Literacy Day was first declared at the UNESCO’s General Conference in 1966 to celebrate world literacy. Going by UNESCO data, 773 million adults and young people around the world still do not have literacy skills. To worsen matters further, the global spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic that began from Wuhan in China has affected over 91% of students and 99% teachers, says a UNESCO report.
The literacy rate is defined as the percentage of literate persons among persons of age 7 years and above. A person who can read and write a simple message in any language with understanding is considered literate in NSS surveys.
This year’s Literacy Day theme is “Literacy teaching and learning in the COVID-19 crisis and beyond”.
Female Literacy Rate – The Achilles Heel for India
The government has published the findings of the nation-wide survey on “Household Social Consumption on Education in India” published as NSS 75th Round (JULY 2017 – JUNE 2018) through the National Statistical Office that comes under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The survey has thrown up some interesting data.
One look at the table above will bring out the disparity that exists in the literacy ratios among males and females, be it in the rural areas or urban ones or even as a cumulative whole across the nation as an average.
For example, take a look at Andhra Pradesh.
In Andhra Pradesh’s rural areas, against 67.5 per cent literate males, the same for females is a dismal 53.5 per cent. That pulls down the average literacy in AP rural to 60.4 per cent.
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Let us look at the urban areas of AP. For literacy ration of 86.3 per cent males, only 73.1 per cent females are literate, that drags down the average literacy to 79.6 per cent.
Even if one looks at the state’s statistics as a cumulative whole, at 73.4 per cent male literacy, the female literacy figures are 59.5 per cent making the state’s literacy rate average slip to 66.4 per cent.
The literacy figures have improved but not very impressively:
First, consider the fact that the literacy figures for India in 2011 as per the Census.
Average for India 74.0 pc
Female literacy rate 65.5 pc
Male literacy rate 82.1 pc
Now look at the literacy figures for India (rural + urban) as per the NSO report of 2017-18
Let us talk of comparison over the years through this table below
The Average for India 77.7 pc
Female literacy rate 70.3 pc
Male literacy rate 84.7 pc
Check these figures against the ones given for the surveys taken during 2007-08 and also 2014. With a world that is going digital and connected, the literacy rates must just be pacing up faster than this.
Here are the inferences one can draw:
More than one-fourth of the country’s population is still illiterate
Of the country’s total male population, one-fifth are illiterate
Out of all women in the country, more than one-third are illiterate
This slow rate of growth of female literacy compared with male literacy is a matter of grave concern. Despite the number of efforts made at national and international levels, there exist a significant number of illiterate women in society, a disturbing factor for all development efforts.
The importance of educating girls/women:
Female literacy is important as it is a force multiplier for the social development of a country. Illiteracy retards the development of an individual, society and the country. Literacy plays a significant role in reducing gender inequality.
The number of people (3-35 years of age) who never went to school and the reasons:
