Literacy in India
History

Up until the end of the 1920s, there had been very little progress in the world of adult education in India. Enlightened rulers of the princely States of Baroda, Travancore and Mysore in India had begun to extend their financial support to night schools and established rural libraries in and around the 19th century. Later, the national leaders who steered the freedom movement were concerned with the question of educating the masses as well; in fact, it was viewed as an important part of the independence agenda. When the Congress Governments did come to power in some provinces in 1937, adult literacy and education were included among the responsibilities of the new government. Only after independence in 1947 did adult education imbed itself in the national consciousness in India as an area that was in need of collective help, large reforms, and positive change.
Present condition

However, the 2001 Census presented some very encouraging numbers that perhaps the Indian literacy rate is improving. According to this source, 65 percent of the country’s population is literate and 95 percent of the rural population has a primary school within one kilometer of its village, granting almost every child access to his/her neighboring school. This is a significant achievement, but the important questions to ask are: does the socio-economic condition of children in India today allow them to go to these schools? How many students drop out before they learn anything significant? And what quality of education do these schools provide and is it adequate?

Literacy in India

• Total number of illiterates: 296 million (2001 Census)
• The literacy rate: 65.38% (2001 Census)
• Males: 75.96% • Females: 54.28%
• The literacy rate: (1991 Census): 51.63%


The truth is that in rural India the quality of education that children receive is poor. 50 percent of these children drop out of school before they turn twelve or until their parents arrange their marriages.
The gender gap in literacy

In 1991, the urban female literacy rate was more than twice that of the rural rate, 64 and 31 percent respectively (RGCC, 1993). Not only is there a large difference in literacy rates between Indians in rural and urban areas of the country, but among men and women as well. This gender gap in literacy rates on the whole has been decreasing through the years, but there still exists a striking difference. Even though there has been a significant increase in literacy in both the urban and the rural areas over the years since independence, the gap between male and female literacy rates has not narrowed nearly enough.

Rural-Urban Literacy Gap - Census 2001

Segment

Population (Ratio)

Male (Ratio)

Female (Ratio)

Rural

366.67 (59.21%)

226.27 (71.18%)

140.39 (46.58%)

Urban

200.03 (80.06%)

113.63 (86.42%)

86.39 (72.99%)

All areas

566.71 (65.20%)

339.91 (75.64%)

226.79 (54.03%)

Factors found to be responsible for poor female literacy rate:

• Gender based inequality.
• Social discrimination and economic exploitation.
• Domestic responsibilities dominating educational responsibilities.
• Low female enrolment in schools.
• Low retention rate and high dropout rate.

The Indian government has been working since India’s independence in August 1947 to create opportunities for women and grant them better social mobility. Though these recent efforts are yielding some positive results, the gender biases persevere with unrelenting persistence, especially in the rural areas, in large part due to the level of education. It was with this in mind that the government of India launched the National Literacy Mission (NLM) in 1988. This initiative is aimed at achieving functional literacy for 80.000.000 illiterates, aged 15 to 35 years. Since women account for an overwhelming percentage of the total number of illiterates, the NLM is for all practical purposes a mission imparting literacy predominately to the women of India. In junction with this central goal, the NLM also seeks to make women aware of family planning and trains them in skills related to improving their living standards.

PlanetRead


While the Indian government is doing its utmost to improve literacy rates following formal methods, non-profit organizations are working with innovative techniques of educating people in the common struggle to help make India 100 percent literate. In a world where literacy is of growing importance, PlanetRead offers a simple and successful way to reach this goal by giving individuals better access to reading practice through filmsongs they enjoy.

Bollywood songs are a major source of affordable entertainment in India. PlanetRead seeks to harness this entertainment capital in movies and incorporate reading practice into them. The end result is a form of education that becomes, in some sense, automatic and, of course, fun. “Same-Language Subtitling” (SLS) has been broadcast on television in India and serves as a teaching tool to motivate nearly 290 million people who are illiterate. SLS also integrates reading into the lives of an additional 400 million who are early-literates. Independent studies have consistently found that SLS improves literacy skills and is preferred by over 90 percent of viewers. PlanetRead benefits women in particular as they represent a large segment of the early literates. Furthermore, it is an extremely simple and economical approach to improving literacy skills among all age groups.

Eradication of illiteracy from a nation that is set to become the most populated in the world in another 10 years time is by no means an easy task. Even though, the Indian government is doing its best, it is left to socially motivated organizations, devoted to the cause of making India 100 percent literate, such as PlanetRead, to come up with new solutions. The challenge of creating a learning society is a formidable one, more so for a nation of one billion people.