The percentage of a population in a certain country/state that can read and write in a specific age group is literacy of that particular country/state. The adult literacy rate applies to those aged above 15, the junior literacy rate to those aged 15 to 24, and the older literacy rate to those aged 65 and above. It's usually tested by how well you can understand a brief, simplified statement about everyday life. Literacy covers numeracy in general, and measuring may include a basic arithmetic skill test. Functional literacy, a more complete measure of literacy tested on a continuous scale in which many competency levels may be established, should be separated from the literacy rate and the number of literates.
Literacy and education levels are important measures of a society's level of growth. Literacy is widely linked to major features of modern civilization, such as urbanization, industry, communication, and trade. Literacy is a crucial component of an individual's entire development since it allows them to better understand and respond to their social, political, and cultural surroundings. Higher levels of education and literacy result in increased awareness, as well as improvements in economic and social situations. It works as a tool for social upliftment, increasing the returns on investment in almost every aspect of development, including population management, health, cleanliness, environmental degradation control, and the employment of the poor.
Literacy is a requirement for education and a weapon for empowerment.The more literate people, the more conscious of career opportunities and engagement in the information economy. Further, literacy can lead to increased health awareness and greater engagement in the community's cultural and economic well-being. After independence, literacy levels improved greatly, and nearly two-thirds of our people were literate today. However, increases in literacy rates must engage with the Indian population's even now growth rate. Literacy levels differ significantly by gender, region, and age. Lets walk through statistical data obtained from dataset uploaded by Govt. of India for the literacy rate for various categories over the period from 1991 to 2011.
THe following is data for overall literacy rate for 1991,2001 and 2011 provided by our govertment of India.
| All India/State/Union Territory | 1991 - Male | 1991 - Female | 1991 - Persons | 2001 - Male | 2001 - Female | 2001 - Persons | 2011 - Rural - Male | 2011 - Rural - Female | 2011 - Rural - Person | 2011 - Urban - Male | 2011 - Urban - Female | 2011 - Urban - Persons | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | All India | 52 | 64 | 39 | 65 | 75 | 54 | 77 | 58 | 68 | 89 | 79 | 84 |
| 1 | Andhra Pradesh | 44 | 55 | 33 | 61 | 70 | 50 | 69 | 52 | 60 | 86 | 74 | 80 |
| 2 | Arunachal Pradesh | 42 | 52 | 30 | 54 | 64 | 44 | 67 | 52 | 60 | 88 | 77 | 83 |
| 3 | Assam | 53 | 62 | 43 | 63 | 71 | 55 | 75 | 63 | 69 | 92 | 85 | 89 |
| 4 | Bihar | 38 | 51 | 22 | 47 | 60 | 33 | 70 | 49 | 60 | 83 | 71 | 77 |
| Measure | Value | |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1991 - Persons | 39 |
| 1 | 2001 - Persons | 54 |
| 2 | 2011 - Rural - Person | 68 |
| 3 | 2011 - Urban - Persons | 84 |
The data represent the education pace of India for various classes as displayed above in the visual chart. The literacy rate of the populace matured over 7 years in 2001 was 54% while it was just 39% in the year 1991. The development has been a lot quicker contrasted with that of the earlier decade since the literacy rate expanded by 15% rate focuses somewhere in the range of 1991 and 2001. The sped-up development during 1991-2001 can be considered as an incredible accomplishment. One more noteworthy component of the outcomes on proficiency in 2001 statistics is that, interestingly, the quantity of non-literates declined somewhere in the range of 1991 and 2001, rather than expanding. The speed up development during 1991-2001 can be considered as an incredible accomplishment. One more surprising component of the outcomes on literacy in the 2001 enumeration is that the quantity of non-literates declined somewhere in the range of 1991 and 2001. The literacy rate varies across the states as shown in fig-2. Kerala stays on the top with around 88% literacy rate, Bihar is at the base with only 33% (Data for J&k is not given for the year 1991) . In 1991 likewise, it had the most Minimum Literacy rate of just 22% among the states and Union Territories across India. Many have gained enormous headway while in others the advancement has been fairly late.
The main increment has occurred in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh as can be observed in the fig-2. Orissa and Meghalaya additionally gained huge headway, however not in a similar way as a few different states. Because in many states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh have started out many projects related to education, which has apparently made a huge impact in Education system. Also if we see in the figure even the states like uttaranchal Pradesh and nagaland are way ahead of states like uttar pradesh, even though they are economically weaker states comparatively, have been relatively better in education.
The above fig shows the statistics of rural and urban areas during 2011. As always kerala remains at the tops in both rural and urban sectors with literacy rates of 93% and 95% respectively. This time Andhra Pradesh is at the base in the rural sector with just 60% literacy rate, but made significant improvement in the urban sector with literacy rate of around 80%. States Like Meghalaya, Mizoram and D & N Haveli achieved more than 90% literacy rate, competitive to Kerala, despite having weak state GDP. The below fig-4 has shown how literacy rate is spread among the states and Union Territories across India.
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The highest and lowest literacy rates in India in 1991 are depicted in the above graph. Kerala has the highest literacy rate in the nation, with a literacy rate of 86 %, followed by Mizoram with 79% and Lakshadweep with 73% come in second and third, respectively. Rajasthan has the lowest literacy rate with only, followed by Bihar with 22%, and Uttar Pradesh with 24 %. There is a significant contrast between Kerala and Rajasthan. (jammu and kashmir does not have literacy rate data at the time in 1991)
The highest and lowest literacy rates in India in 2001 are depicted in the above graph. Kerala has the highest literacy rate in the nation as always, with a Increase in literacy rate of 88% with 2% increase rate from 1991 to 2001. Mizoram with 87 % and Lakshadweep 86 % come in second and third position, respectively. Bihar has the lowest literacy rate with only 33 % while it was 20% with increase in 7% which is quite improvement but the uniform rate is very much low compare to other states.
Urban and Rural Literacy rate in 2001 At the time of the 1991 census, there were 49.01 million illiterates in the country's urban area. After 1991, urban illiterates increased to 4.06 million, reaching 53.07 million in the 2011 census. India's urban literacy rate is gradually increased. It was 79.92 percent in the 2001 census, and it has now increased to (84.11 percent) in the 2011 census. The major causes of high literacy in an urban area are an occupational necessity, better educational facilities, social and economic capability to obtain an education, fewer prejudices against female mobility and education, better health, a better situation of law and order, and migration of educated rural people to urban areas. Now let's see state-wise, Mizoram (98 percent) has the highest urban literacy rate, followed by Kerala (95.11 percent), Tripura (93.47 percent), and Himachal Pradesh (91.10 percent), and Meghalaya (91.10 percent). Literacy rates in the All-Union Territories are above 86 percent. Uttar Pradesh, on the other hand, has the lowest literacy rate (75.14 percent), followed by Bihar (77 percent), Jammu & Kashmir (77.12 percent), Rajasthan (80 percent), and Andhra Pradesh (83 percent). When looking at the illiteracy rate in the country, we discovered that there were 279.82 million illiterates in rural areas at the time of the 1991 census. After 1991, the number of rural illiterates decreased by 50.19 million, reaching 229.63 million in the 2011 census. The literacy rate in rural areas has gradually increased. It stands at 68 percent in the 2011 census. Now let's see state-wise, Kerala has the highest percentage (93 percent), followed by Goa (87 percent), Tripura (85 percent), Mizoram (84.10 percent), and Himachal Pradesh (82 percent). While literacy rates in the rest of the union territories are above 80%. Bihar, on the other hand, has the lowest literacy rate (59.78%), followed by Arunachal Pradesh (59.94%), Andhra Pradesh (60.45%), Jharkhand (61.11%), and Rajasthan (61.44 percent). From the above chart, we can say that the urban literacy rate is high compared to rural. The urban area is good because the illiteracy rate is high in rural as compared to urban. In Urban areas, there are good facilities and more educational institutes.
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In many states except Bihar and Jharkhand, literacy rate has improved dramatically between 1991 to 2011. It is vital to focus more on the grown-up literacy programs for the huge populace of non-literate people/adults. They comprise around 40% of the absolute grown-up populace (old enough 15+), and that implies a population of around 230 million non-educated grown-ups. The objective initially fixed for Adult literacy programs was to make 100 million non-educated people literate by somewhere around 1999 or 2000. This target was not accomplished, yet the statistics information show that the effect was much beneath the normal accomplishment. Overall all the states have made great improvement over the decades and will continue to do so in the near future.
References: https://www.oxfamindia.org/featuredstories/10-facts-illiteracy-india-you-must-know https://censusindia.gov.in/census_and_you/literacy_and_level_of_education.aspx www.educationforallinindia.com https://www.kaggle.com/code/para24/eda-with-plotly/notebook https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/doncorleone92/govt-of-india-literacy-rate https://www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2021/09/how-to-visualise-data-in-maps-using-geopandas/ https://data.gov.in/catalog/literacy-rate-india-nsso-and-rgi