Women outdo men in literacy
Nearly three fourth of the total population in the country is now literate with the number of female literates being higher than the males.
The literacy rate has gone up from 64.83 per cent in 2001 to 74.04 per cent in 2011 showing an increase of 9.21 percentage points, according to the 15th census’ provisional data released by the government here on Thursday.
The literacy figure of the latest census includes people aged seven and above. The illiterates form about 26 per cent of the total population. The literacy rate of males and females works out to be 82.14 per cent and 65.46 per cent respectively, the provisional report said.
The increase in literacy rate in males and females during 2001-2011 is in the order of 6.88 and 1.79 percentage points respectively, it added.
“It is encouraging to note that out of total of 217,700,941 literates added during the decade, female (110,069,001) outnumbered male 1107,631,940) ,” Registrar General of India and Census Commissioner C Chandramauli.In Karnataka, literacy among females is still lower than males.Out of the total 75.60 literates, 82.85 per cent are male and 68.13 per cent female.
Ten states and UTs viz. Kerala, Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Tripura, Goa, Daman and Diu, Puducherry, Chandigarh, NCT of Delhi and Andaman and Nicobar Islands have achieved literacy rate of above 85 per cent, the target set by the Planning Commission to be achieved by 2011-12.
Among the states and UTs, literacy rate in Kerala is highest with 93.91 per cent, followed by Lakshadweep (92.28 per cent). Bihar was found to have the lowest literacy rate (63.82 per cent) followed by Arunachal Pradesh (66.95 per cent).
Mizoram's two districts --- Serchhip (98.76 per cent) and Aizawl (98.50 per cent) have recorded highest literacy rates while Madhya Pradesh's Alirajpur district (37.22 per cent) and Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district (41.58 per cent) recorded the lowest literacy rates.
