Census of India 2011: Three out of four Indians can read and write now

ET Bureau Apr 1, 2011, 09.23am IST

Tags:

• Planning commission|
• India

NEW DELHI: India's effective literacy rate has recorded a 9.2% rise to reach 74.04%, according to provisional data of the 2011 census released on Thursday.

Even as there was a sense of achievement at the improvement in the literacy rate, questions are being raised about what constitutes literacy and the real import of the continued high gender gap.

Literacy rate improved sharply among females as compared to males. While the effective literacy rate for males rose from 75.26% to 82.14%, marking a rise of 6.9%, it increased by 11.8% for females to go from 53.67% to 65.46%. The gap of 21.59 percentage points recorded between male and female literacy rates in 2001 census reduced to 16.68 percentage points in 2011. The Planning Commission had set up a target of reducing this gap to 10 percentage points by 2011-12.

 In urban population, in 2001, the literacy rate is 79.9 % at the national level. Many States/Uts have achieved literacy rate higher than the national average. These are Kerala, Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Goa, and Delhi, which have achieved literacy rate in the range of 88 % to 96 %. Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh rank in the last five states.

NUMBER OF VILLAGES/TOWNS BY RANGE OF LITERACY RATE & SEX, INDIA, 2001.

Range of Literacy (Percent)	Persons		Males		Females
	No.of Villages	No. of UAs/Towns	No. of Villages	No. of UAs/Towns	No. of Villages	No. of UAs/Towns
Nil	3,077	0	3,546	0	9,899	0
Less than 10	8,664	0	4,516	0	28,412	0
10-25	31,494	0	14,410	0	90,198	17
25-50	162,727	122	72,057	33	244,760	475
50-75	294,596	1,740	237,381	624	186,245	2,638
75 or above	93,055	2,516	261,630	3,721	33,029	1,248
Total*	593,613	4,378	593,540	4,378	592,543	4,378
Source : Primary Census Abstract, Census of India 2001 Note: *Excludes villages/UA/Towns with no Male/Female population.

INDIA
LITERACY 2001
(DISTRICTS)

 NUMBER AND PERCENT LITERATES BY LEVEL OF EDUCATION: INDIA 2001#

Level of education	Absolute Numbers (000')			Percent to Literate
	Persons	Males	Females	Persons	Males	Females
Literate	560,688	336,534	224,154	100.0	100.0	100.0
Literate without educational level $	20,023	11,361	8,662	3.6	3.4	3.9
Below Primary	144,831	81,148	63,683	25.8	24.1	28.4
Primary	146,740	83,525	63,215	26.2	24.8	28.2
Middle	90,227	55,940	34,286	16.1	16.6	15.3
Matriculation/Secondary	79,230	51,202	28,028	14.1	15.2	12.5
High secondary/ Intermediate/PreUnivercity/ Senior Secondary	37,816	24,596	13,220	6.7	7.3	5.9
Non technical diploma or certificate not equel to degree	386	259	128	0.1	0.1	0.1
Technical diploma or certificate not equel to degree	3,667	2,901	766	0.7	0.9	0.3
Graduate and above	37,670	25,533	12,137	6.7	7.6	5.4
#India figures excludes Mao Maram, Paomata and Purul sub-divisions of Senapati district in Manipur state as census state as census results were cancelled due to administrative and technical reasons.