Literacy Scenario in India (As per 2001 Census)

Literacy in India has made amazing stride since Independence. This has been further established by the results of the Census 2001. The literacy speed has improved from 18.33% in 1951 to 64.84% in 2001. This is despite the truth that throughout the main part of the last five decades there has been exponential development of the population at nearly 2% per annum. The state-wise literacy rates are given below:  
 
LITERACY RATE 7+ POPULATION (CENSUS 2001)
 

Some of the chief highlights of Census 2001 are given below:  
 
1. The literacy rate in the country has increased to 64.84%, which reflects and generally increase of 12.63%, the fastest decadal increase ever. This is the highest rate since independence.  
 

2. The male literacy rate has increased to 75.26%, which shows an increase of 11.13%.   On the other hand, the female literacy of 53.67% has improved at a much faster rate of 14.38%.  
 
3. The male-female literacy gap has reduced from 24.84% in 1991 to 21.59% in 2001.   Mizoram has the smallest gap (3.97%) followed by Kerala (6.52%) and Meghalaya (5.82%).  

4. Every States and Union Territories without exception have shown increase in literacy rates through 1991-2001.  
 
5. In all the States and Union Territories the male literacy rate except Bihar (59.68%) is now over 60%.  
 
6. For the first time since independence there has been a decline in the absolute number of illiterates throughout the decade. In the previous decades, there has been a continuous increase in the number of illiterates, despite the increase in the literacy rates, but now for the first time the total number of illiterates has come down by 24.77 million.  
 
7. The number of literate persons has increased to 560.68 million in 2001 thus adding an additional 201.40 million literates in the country.  
 
8. Rajasthan has recorded the highest increase i.e.21.86% in the literacy rate among the States/UTs of India.   Literacy rate of Rajasthan in 7+ populations in 1991 was 38.55% which has increased to 60.41% in 2001.  

9. The state also recorded very good increase in the female literacy. It was 20.44% in 1991, which has increased to 43.85% in 2001.  
 
10. The female literacy rate of Chhattisgarh in 7+ populations in 1991 was 27.52% which has increased to 51.85% in 2001.Thus the rise in female literacy rate in Chhattisgarh has been to the extent of 24.33%, which is the chief among all the States/UTs of the country.  
 
11. Madhya Pradesh also recorded a good increase in female literacy rate i.e.20.94%.In 1991 the literacy rate of females was 29.35%, which has increased to 50.29% in 2001.
 
State Groupings  
     
On the basis of literacy rate, State/UTs can be grouped as under:  

1. High Literacy Rate (80% and above) – Kerala (90.86%), Mizoram (88.80%), Lakshadweep (86.66%), Goa (82.01%), Chandigarh (81.94%), Delhi (81.67%), A & N Islands (81.30%) and Pondicherry (81.24%).  

2. Literacy Rate above national average (64.8%) and below 80% - Daman & Diu (78.18%), Maharashtra (76.88%), Himachal Pradesh (76.48%), Tamil Nadu (73.45%), Tripura (73.19%), Uttaranchal (71.62%), Manipur (70.53%), Punjab (69.65%), Gujarat (69.14%), Sikkim (68.81%), West Bengal (68.64%), Haryana (67.91%), Karnataka (66.64%) and Nagaland (66.59%).  

3. Literacy Rate below national average (64.8%) – Chhattisgarh (64.66%), Madhya Pradesh (63.74%), Assam (63.25%), Orissa (63.08%), Meghalaya (62.56%), Andhra Pradesh (60.47%), Rajasthan (60.41%), Dadra & Nagar Haveli (57.63%), Uttar Pradesh (56.27%), Jammu & Kashmir (55.52%), Arunachal Pradesh (54.34%), Jharkhand (53.56%) and Bihar (47.00%).

Rural-Urban Gap (Literates) - Census 2001  (In million)

Illiteracy Size:  
       
1. In terms of the size of illiteracy, eight States, viz. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh,     Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka and Maharastra had more than 15     million illiterates every accounted for 69.7 percent of the illiterate population of the     country.  
 
2. The first four of these states - Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are in     Hindi belt and have 42.76% illiterates.  
 
3. Number of non-literates in these States - Uttar Pradesh (58.85 million), Bihar (35.08     million), Rajasthan (18.15 million) and Madhya Pradesh (17.97 million).    
 
4. In Bihar the number of illiterates improved from 31.98 million in 1991 to 35.08 million in     2001.    
 
5. Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have 10.21 million and 6.10 million illiterates in 2001.  
 
6. It means that 48.12% of the non-literates reside in these six Hindi-speaking States.    
 
7. Other States having more than 10 million illiterates are: Orissa (11.61 million), Gujarat     (13.31 million) and Tamil Nadu (14.65 million).  
 
Total Population and Literacy in 15-35 age-groups (Census 2001)  

As per survey 2001, the total population of India in 15-35 age-group is 347.67 million, out of which 179.18 million were males and 168.49 million were females. The number of non-literates in this age-group was 100.74 million, out of which 66.78 million were females and 33.96 million were males.
 
Total Population in 15-35 age-groups
 

Literate Population in 15-35 Age-group

   
Non-literate Population in 15-35 Age-group
 

Female Literacy
The survey 2001 final report specify that India has made significant progress in the field of literacy throughout the decade and since the 1991 survey. The literacy rate as per 2001 census is 64.84% as against 52.21% in 1991, whereas the female literacy had increased by 14.4 percentage points i.e. from 39.3% in 1991 to 53.7% in 2001.   Out of 864.79 million people in 7+ age group, 560.68 million are at present literate out of which 224.15 million are women. Three-fourths of the male population and more than half of the female population are literate. The trends in literacy rate since 1951 are given below:  

It is noticed that the female literacy rate throughout the period 1991-2001 increased by 14.38% whereas male literacy rose only by 11.13%.
 
The salient points relating to female literacy are:  

• The gap in male-female literacy rates has decreased from 24.8 percentage points in 1991 to 21.6 percentage points in 2001.  
  
  
• Kerala registered highest female literacy rate at 87.72% while Bihar registered the lowest at 33.12%.  
  
  
• For the first time there is a decline in total number of non-literates. The number of illiterates has reduced from 328 million in 1991 to 304 million in 2001.  
  
  
• Throughout 1991-2001, the population in 7+age group increased by 171.6 million while 203.6 million additional persons became literate throughout that period.  
  
  
• Out of 864.79 million people above the age of 7 years, 560.68 million are now literate.  
  
• Each states and union territories without exception have shown increase in literacy rates throughout 1991-2001.  
  
  
• Kerala continues to have the highest literacy rate of 90.86% in the country with 94.24% literacy rates for males and 87.72% for females.  
  
  
• Bihar registered a minimum increase of 8.52 percentage points from 38.48% to 47.00%.

 
Status of Literacy Among SCs and STs  

As per the 2001 survey, the literacy rate of Scheduled Castes population aged 7 years and above was 54.69 per cent.  The male and female literacy rate being 66.64 per cent and 41.90 per cent. The literacy rate of Schedule Caste has improved from 37.41% in 1991 to 54.69% in 2001 (an increase of 17.28%). The increase in overall literacy rate of the country for all persons is 12.63%, whereas increase in literacy rate of scheduled caste through the decade is 17.28%. There are 62.4 million SC illiterates out of which 62% (38.7 million) are females. About 47.5 million SC illiterates (76.1%) are residing in the following eight states: Uttar Pradesh (15 million), Bihar (7.2 million), West Bengal (6.4 million), Andhra Pradesh (4.9 million), Rajasthan (3.7 million), Karnataka (3.4 million), Madhya Pradesh (3.1 million) and Tamil Nadu (3.8 million). About 1/3rd of the Schedule Caste illiterates were residing in Hindi speaking low literacy states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
 
The literacy rate of Schedule Tribes has increased by 17.50% in 2001 (47.10%) from 29.60% in 1991. The increase in generally literacy rate of the country for all persons is 12.63%, where as increase in literacy rate of scheduled tribe through the decade is 17.50%. The male and female literacy rates being 59.17% and 34.76% respectively. The increase in ST female literacy rate increased by   16.57 per cent in a decade. There are 36.4 million ST illiterates in India out of which 21.2 million being female forming 61 per cent of the total ST illiterates. The following are the states having more than 3 million Schedule Tribe illiterates population: Madhya Pradesh (5.7 million), Orissa (4.2 million), Chhatisgarh (3.8 million), Jharkhand (3.4 million), Gujarat (3.2 million), Maharashtra (3.1 million) and Rajasthan (3.1 million). The number of Schedule Tribes illiterates in these seven states was 26.5 million, which is 73 per cent of the total Schedule Tribe illiterates in the country.
 
Bihar is the state having lowest female schedule castes and schedule tribes literacy rate i.e. 15.58 per cent and 15.54 per cent respectively.
 
Analysis of the NSSO Sample Survey Data on Literacy
 
Apart from census conducted each ten years by the Registrar General and Census chief of India. National Sample Survey organization (NSSO) also conducts all India household sample surveys on Consumer Expenditure and Employment and Unemployment. It takes samples of about 40,000 households (small sample) each year and a sample of about 1,20,000 households (large sample) every five years. These reports also collect some data on literacy.
The report on the basis of 61st round (2004-05) provides data on literacy rates of age group 7 and above at all India level is now available. Literacy rates for the country as exposed by this report are as under:

Source - derived from Table 2 of the report