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.