Accordingly overall literacy rates have risen multi-fold in india since Independence from around 18 percent in the 1950s to 74 percent in the last Census. But the averages hide the vast disparities. Female literacy is particularly wanting in the country as a significant proportion of them are still illiterate with major ramifications for the indian economy.
The lack of education among women prevents their participation in the workforce, thus hindering the country’s development. Many studies have also concluded that female education has a significant impact on the development of future generations as they usually have a more direct role to play in their child’s education than their father. An addition of a year of schooling to a mother’s education has a significantly higher impact on the next generation than an addition to the father’s schooling by the same number of years. Further, better birth outcomes like higher birth weight and lower child mortality are observed among educated mothers.
When compared with the rest of the world, the female literacy rate is considerably low in india at around 60 percent, which is 22 percentage points below the world average. The figure below shows the stark difference in India’s female literacy is not only with the developed countries but also with middle- and lower-income countries like sri lanka and Zimbabwe.
click and follow Indiaherald WhatsApp channel