TED News Desk, New Delhi: In the report based on the National Statistical Office (NSO) survey, Kerala comes first as the state with the highest literacy in the country with a massive rate of 96.2 per cent. Andhra Pradesh, on the other hand, with a meagre 66.4 per cent, ended last in the survey.
As per the survey that provides the literacy rates of each state among people from the age of 7 years and above, Delhi’s literacy rate is second highest at 88 per cent. Following Delhi, Uttarakhand is at 87.6 per cent, Himachal Pradesh at 86.6 per cent and Assam at 85.9 per cent. On the other hand, Rajasthan performed second worst, after Andhra Pradesh, at 69.7 per cent. Next is Bihar with a literacy rate of 70.9 per cent, followed by Telangana at 72.8 per cent. Then come Uttar Pradesh at 73 per cent and Madhya Pradesh at 73.7 per cent.
There is a substantial gap between male and female literacy rate at the national and the state level. India’s overall male literacy rate at 84.7 per cent is higher than female literacy rate at 70.3 per cent. Similarly in Kerala, the male literacy rate is 97.4 per cent versus the female literacy rate at 95.2 per cent. Delhi records the male literacy rate at 93.7 per cent as compared to 82.4 per cent in females.
Especially among the states with the lowest literacy rates this gap was huge. For example, Andhra Pradesh records a male literacy rate of 73.4 per cent while female literacy rate at 59.5 per cent. In Rajasthan, the male literacy rate is even higher at 80.8 per cent in comparison with female literacy rate at 57.6 per cent. Similarly, in Bihar, the male literacy rate stands at 79.7 per cent as compared with the female literacy rate at 60.5 per cent.
The survey sampled 64, 519 agrarian families from 8,097 villages and 49,238 urban families from 6,188 blocks across India.
Almost 24 per cent of people between the ages of 15-29 years in rural areas and 56 per cent in the urban population were able to use a computer. Besides, almost 4 per cent of the village population and 23 per cent of the urban population had a computer. Almost 35 per cent of people aged 15-29 admitted to the use of the internet 30 days before the survey. The ratio between urban and rural population is nearly 58 per cent to 25 per cent respectively.
The survey clearly shows that India has a long way to go in providing education to every citizen and hence, securing its bright and now digital, future.
