Post Independence Changes in the Literacy Rate in India
Analyse the changes in the literacy rate during the post independence period in India
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read and write. The National Literacy Mission defines literacy as acquiring the skills of reading, writing and arithmetic and the ability to apply them to one's day-to-day life.With almost 2/3rds of the indian population aged 7 years of age and above now literate, india has made a very significant progress in the direction. Data from 1961-1991 indicated that the absolute number of illiterates have been increasing but in 2001 census one of the important finding was that the absolute number of illetrates declined by 32million. Literacy in, india is the key for soio economic progress and the indian literacy rate grew to 68% in 2007 from 12% at the end of the British rule in 1947. According to the latest survey by national Sample Survey Office (NSSO) in june 2008, the literacy rate among the polulation with age 7 and above was 72% where as the adult population (age15 and above) had a literacy rate of 66%. Although this was a greater than 5 fold improvement the level is well below the world average literacy rate of 84% and india currently has the largest illetrate population of any nation on the earth. Since independence the literacy rate has been growing constantly from 18.33% in 1951 to 28.30% in 1961, 34.45% in 1971, 43.57% in 1981, 52.21% in 1991 and 68.84% in 2001.
In recent years, the increase in female literacy rate has been higher than in male literacy rate narrowing the male-female gap particularly during the 1980s and 1990s. This can be explained partly by the general expansion of education, partly by the present policies of positive intervention followed in favour of girls and by implementation of programmes like DPEP, literacy promotion programmes through NLM and Adult literacy Programme, Mahila Samkhya Scheme, work of the Mahila Sanghs, establishment of kasturba gandhi balika vidhyalas etc. Because of the
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read and write. The National Literacy Mission defines literacy as acquiring the skills of reading, writing and arithmetic and the ability to apply them to one's day-to-day life.With almost 2/3rds of the indian population aged 7 years of age and above now literate, india has made a very significant progress in the direction. Data from 1961-1991 indicated that the absolute number of illiterates have been increasing but in 2001 census one of the important finding was that the absolute number of illetrates declined by 32million. Literacy in, india is the key for soio economic progress and the indian literacy rate grew to 68% in 2007 from 12% at the end of the British rule in 1947. According to the latest survey by national Sample Survey Office (NSSO) in june 2008, the literacy rate among the polulation with age 7 and above was 72% where as the adult population (age15 and above) had a literacy rate of 66%. Although this was a greater than 5 fold improvement the level is well below the world average literacy rate of 84% and india currently has the largest illetrate population of any nation on the earth. Since independence the literacy rate has been growing constantly from 18.33% in 1951 to 28.30% in 1961, 34.45% in 1971, 43.57% in 1981, 52.21% in 1991 and 68.84% in 2001.
In recent years, the increase in female literacy rate has been higher than in male literacy rate narrowing the male-female gap particularly during the 1980s and 1990s. This can be explained partly by the general expansion of education, partly by the present policies of positive intervention followed in favour of girls and by implementation of programmes like DPEP, literacy promotion programmes through NLM and Adult literacy Programme, Mahila Samkhya Scheme, work of the Mahila Sanghs, establishment of kasturba gandhi balika vidhyalas etc. Because of the