Literacy Trends In India

EDUCATION

Education is the most effective tool ever developed. Education makes the man wiser and independent. There is an old saying “Education makes you right and responsible.” But it was not the case earlier. It was believed that education was meant only for rich and great people. But after so many attempts by Government the entire scenario has changed in our country.

Literacy Rate A literate is the one who has acquired the

skills of reading, writing and arithmetic and the ability to apply them to one's day-to-day life. As recorded in 1901 the Literacy rate of India was 5.40% which has grown to 74.04% in 2012.

The literacy rate has constantly increased since 1901 as shown below. Its basically because of efforts of Government.

Statistics

1901 1911 1921 1931 1941 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 20110

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Literacy Rate

Literacy Rate

The Misconception

There is a misconception among people in Indian society that women should not be allowed to study as they are expected to manage domestic chores. The number of literate women among the female population of India was between 2–6% from 1901 to 1947.Concerted efforts led to improvement from 15.3% in 1961 to 28.5% in 1981.By 2001 literacy for women had exceeded 50% of the overall female population.

Women literacy Rate improved

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FEMALE LITERACY RATE

FEMALE LITERACY RATE

With concerted efforts of government and many NGO’s the literacy rate has sharply increased. The first woman who educated herself in spite of so much pressure from society was Dr. Ramabai Ranade. The sharp increase in female literacy rate can be seen as below.

The Urban-Rural Rift Earlier only urban people were expected to be

educated as the schooling facilities were only applicable there. But now Government has started many schools in various urban and rural areas where a very meager fee is charged. Also many private schools have come up in many districts.

The rural areas have always shown literacy rate as compared to urban areas but the difference is decreasing as shown below.

1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 20110

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Rural areasUrban areas

STATISTICS

THE RESERVED CATEGORIES

From very earlier times the right to education had been to only upper castes and rich people but afterwards the people became aware and various policies started by government helped in educating lower castes and Right to education was also a boon.

THE MALE-FEMALE DISCRIMINATION

Women are always considered inferior to men and the same is in case of education. In 1901 the literacy rate of women was far more less than men but it has considerably improved.

It can be seen in the graph below that the female literacy rate was much less than the male literacy rate and total literacy rate but further because of changing trends and policies it has increased.

STATISTICS

RIGHT TO EDUCATION-A MILESTONE

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act (RTE), which was passed by the Indian parliament on 4 August 2009.It describes the modalities of the provision of free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 in India.

SMART SCHOOLS

The days of carrying huge bags, textbooks are going to be over as concept of smart schools has arrived which deals with everything online. This will attract more and more students towards education. And there would be no more discussions on “School made us 'literate' but did not teach us to study for pleasure.”

FUTURE TARGET The literacy rate is improving as we know. The

Government has assured the change will come from small cities. Kerala has the best literacy rate in India but the focus will be on small states like Bihar which had shown a sharp increase from 47% in 2001 and 63.82 % in 2011.

FUTURE OF EDUCATION

The government may propose new school, colleges and numerous reforms but these cannot see the light without adequate money. The central government allocated Rs.42,036 crore (Rs.420 billion/ $ 9.1 billion) for both the school and higher education sectors in 2010-11, an increase of over Rs.5,600 crore from the previous fiscal – a move that aims to reform education by bringing equality in the sector.