Literacy and Education of Women in India

Education is regarded as a key instrument for the empowerment of women. Education changes their worldview, improves their chances of employment, facilitates their participation in public life, and also influences their fertility. Several studies indicate that educated women have, on an average, fewer children and they take good care of their socialization.

Although considerable progress has been made with regard to literacy and education, the overall picture still remains unfavorable to women. At the beginning of the 20th century, the country as a whole was largely illiterate with just 5.3 per cent of the population counted as literate. Only 0.60 per cent women were then literate. In 1951, the first Census taken four years after independence, the picture was not much better.

The female literacy rate stood at 7.93 per cent, as compared to 24.95 per cent for men. 

The 2001 Census suggests a 65.38 per cent literacy rate for India, with 75.85 per cent for males, and 54.16 per cent for females.

Literacy is not evenly spread throughout India. 

There are 12 states and Union territories that are below the national average for female literacy.

The states of Bihar and Jharkhand have the lowest female literacy rates (33.57 and 39.38%, respectively). These data suggest that nearly half of India’s female population is still illiterate. This is not a small number. A massive programme is needed to make nearly 240 million women literate.

It is also to be noted that most of these women are located in rural and tribal areas. Another point to remember is that most of the women included in the literate category have not had education beyond the primary level.

The number of women goes down as we move to higher levels of education. However, women are to be found in all professions, including medicine and engineering. An idea can, however, be had by knowing the percentage of females by number of years of schooling.

The 1991 figures for educational compo­sition of women, in terms of number of years of schooling, are given below:

The 1998 Year Book of the Institute of Applied Manpower Research provides figures regarding the enrolment of girls by stages of education.

These are reproduced in Table 3 which suggests that only 77.15 million girls were enrolled as students in different courses. The male enrolment figure was much higher – 109 million. Of course, over the years, the gap between boys and girls with regard to enrolment is getting smaller and smaller, but there is still need to accelerate the process of universalization of education among women.

Simultaneously, there is also a need to take measures to reduce the dropout rate, which is fairly high, particularly among village girls. The government realizes the importance of education in bringing about basic change in the status of women. Initially, the policy thrust was on welfare, which changed to development in the 1980s, and is now redefined as empowerment. Education is seen as a major contributor to the empowerment process.

In this regard, the following programmes undertaken by the government deserve special mention:

1. Mahila Samakhya:

Started in 1989, this scheme uses education as a tool for empowerment. This scheme is being carried out in 8,000 villages in 53 districts in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh.

2. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan:

This is a campaign to universal primary education, as part of the international programme of Education for All (EFA). It is inspired by UNESCO’s regional programme called APPEAL – Asia Pacific Programme of Education for All.

In addition, there are other programmes of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, which also cover women’s education. These include Operation Blackboard, Non-Formal Education, District Primary Education Programme, National Literacy Mission, Navodaya Vidyalaya, and Vocational Education.

In the state of Rajasthan, which has low rates of literacy among rural and tribal women, an innovative programme called Lok Jumbish was launched with financial assistance from the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA) in 1992. This programme was, however, closed down in 2004.