State of female literacy in India

While the aggregate literacy rates in India have risen multi-fold since 1950, the rise has neither been uniform nor well distributed amongst the states.

What has happened?

  • The literacy rates in India have increased from around 18 percent in the 1950s to 74 percent at the time of the last Census in 2011.
  • However, female literacy in India in India as a significant proportion of the female population in India are still illiterate.
  • This lack of education of half of the population has major ramifications for the Indian economy.
  • In India, a wide disparity in the literacy performance of the literacy of the male and female segments of the Indian society.
  • There is a difference of over 20% points between the literacy rates of males and females in India.
  • However, over 80% of the country’s young female population with age between 7 to 29 is literate.
  • Compared to the world, the female literacy rate (60%) is considerably lower is 22% points below the world average.

Why women education is important?

  • The lack of education among women is detrimental to the participation of the workforce in the economy.
  • This hinders the development of future generations as they usually have a more direct role to play in their child’s education than their father.

Higher education leads to better birth conditions like the higher birth weight of individuals and lower child mortality.


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