Literacy in India
[6] The lower female literacy rate has a dramatically negative impact on family planning and population stabilisation efforts in India.
Studies have indicated that female literacy is a strong predictor of the use of contraception among married Indian couples, even when women do not otherwise have economic independence.
[8] Literacy involves a continuum of learning enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society.
The achievement of functional literacy implies (i) self-reliance in 3 Rs, (ii) awareness of the causes of deprivation and the ability to move towards amelioration of their condition by participating in the process of development, (iii) acquiring skills to improve economic status and general well-being, and (iv) imbibing values such as national integration, conservation of the environment, women's equality, observance of small family norms.
[11] Source: The report on 'Household Social Consumption: Education in India as part of 75th round of National Sample Survey – from July 2017 to June 2018.
One of the main factors contributing to this relatively low literacy rate is usefulness of education and availability of schools in vicinity in rural areas.
[25] In 600,000 villages and multiplying urban slum habitats, 'free and compulsory education' is the basic literacy instruction dispensed by barely qualified 'para teachers'.
Females are pulled to help out on agricultural farms at home as they are increasingly replacing the males on such activities which require no formal education.
[31] Prior to the colonial era, education in India typically occurred under the supervision of a guru in traditional schools called gurukulas.
[33] Dharampal notes that senior British officials, such as Thomas Munro – who reported that the Hindu temple or mosque of each village had a school attached to it and the children of all communities attended these schools – surveyed the number and types of indigenous Indian educational institutions still operating in the early nineteenth century, numbers and status of students attending, and the instruction given.
In 1821, one such official, G. L. Prendergast of the Bombay Presidency Governor's Council, stated:[34] ... there is hardly a village ... in which there is not at least one school ... many in every town, and in large cities; ... where young natives are taught reading, writing and arithmetic, upon a system so economical ... that there is hardly a cultivator or petty dealer who is not competent to keep his own accounts with a degree of accuracy, in my opinion, beyond what we meet with amongst the lower orders in our own country.
[37][38][39] In 1944, the British colonial administration presented a plan, called the Sargent Scheme for the educational reconstruction of India, with a goal of producing 100% literacy in the country within 40 years, i.e. by 1984.
[40] Although the 40-year time-frame was derided at the time by leaders of the Indian independence movement as being too long a period to achieve universal literacy,[40] India had only just crossed the 74% level by the 2011 census.
The British Indian censuses identify a significant difference in literacy rates, by: sex, religion, caste and state of residence, an example of which may be seen in the table below.
Parliament has passed the Constitution 86th Amendment Act, 2002, to make elementary education a Fundamental Right for children in the age group of 6–14 years.
Every census since 1880 had indicated rising literacy in the country, but the population growth rate had been high enough that the absolute number of illiterate people rose with every decade.
[45] The Government of Bihar has launched several programs to boost literacy, and its Department of Adult Education won a UNESCO award in 1981.
[50] Extensive impoverishment, entrenched hierarchical social divisions and the lack of correlation between educational attainment and job opportunities are often cited in studies of the hurdles literacy programs face in Bihar.
Often, children receiving an education in Bihar face significant challenges due to the regions socio-cultural influences and economic factors.
[citation needed] Kerala topped the Education Development Index (EDI) among 21 major states in India in the year 2006–2007.
The access for rural students to higher educational institutions in cities is facilitated by widely subsidized transport fares.
Then, Kala Jāthas (cultural troupes) and Sāksharata Pada Yātras (Literacy Foot Marches) were organized to generate awareness of the campaign and create a receptive social atmosphere for the program.
[59] As in Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram has a social structure that is relatively free of hierarchy and strong official intent to produce total literacy.
[62] Starting in 1982, Tamil Nadu took an approach to promote literacy based on free lunches for schoolchildren, "ignoring cynics who said it was an electoral gimmick and economists who said it made little fiscal sense.
"[63] The then chief minister of Tamil Nadu, MGR launched the program, which resembled a similar initiative in 19th century Japan, because "he had experienced as a child what it was like to go hungry to school with the family having no money to buy food".
Also, other market participants like banks, stock exchanges, broking houses, mutual funds, and insurance companies are actively involved in it.
Specific mention is to be made regarding the role of the People's Science Movements (PSMs) and Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti (BGVS) in the Literacy Mission in India during the early 1990s.
Shantha Sinha won a Magsaysay Award in 2003 in recognition of "Her guiding the people of Andhra Pradesh to end the scourge of child labor and send all of their children to school."
As head of an extension programme at the University of Hyderabad in 1987, she organized a three-month-long camp to prepare children rescued from bonded labor to attend school.
Later, in 1991, she guided her family's Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation to take up this idea as part of its overriding mission in Andhra Pradesh.
