Q.2
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Literacy is one of the most essential indicators of the quality of a
country's human capital. While the country has made significant
progress in improving literacy over the years, it continues to be
home to 313 million illiterate people; 59 percent of them are
women. About three decades ago, the adult male literacy rate in
India was almost twice that for adult females. While this gap has
narrowed substantially over the years, adult male literacy rate still
surpasses the adult female literacy rate. A survey was conducted
by National Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi, India. The
collected information is given below -
Year
1987 | 1993 1999 2007 2014 2017
(%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Male Literacy Rate 60.5 65.5 69.2
76.6 80.3
81.5
37.9
43.8
Female Literacy Rate 31.7
61.8
54.9
64.6
Gender Gap in
28.9
27.6
25.4 21.7
18.5
16.9
Literacyबट व्हाई द मेल लिटरेसी रेट इन द ईयर 1970
Answers
Answer:
dimension
31 October 2019
TANUSHREE CHANDRA
Gender Gap,Human Capital,Literacy,Skill Development
This brief examines the literacy landscape in India between 1987 and 2017, focusing on the gender gap in four age cohorts: children, youth, working-age adults, and the elderly. It finds that the gender gap in literacy has shrunk substantially for children and youth, but the gap for older adults and the elderly has seen little improvement. A state-level analysis of the gap reveals the same trend for most Indian states. The brief offers recommendations such as launching adult literacy programmes linked with skill development and vocational training, offering incentives such as employment and micro-credit, and leveraging technology such as mobile-learning to bolster adult education, especially for females. It underlines the importance of community participation for the success of these initiatives.
Attribution: Tanushree Chandra, “Literacy in India: The Gender and Age Dimension”, ORF Issue Brief No. 322, October 2019, Observer Research Foundation.
Introduction
Literacy is one of the most essential indicators of the quality of a country’s human capital. Latest data[1] puts India’s adult literacy rate[a] at 73.2 percent. While the country has made significant progress in improving literacy over the years, it continues to be home to 313 million illiterate people; 59 percent of them are women.[2]
The high rates of illiteracy among Indian women—and the corollary gender gap in literacy attainment—are attributable to many social, economic and cultural factors. Even as the benefits of female education are public—including a more productive workforce, lower fertility and lower infant mortality—the costs such as tuition fees and school supplies as well as opportunity costs of forgone child labour, are privately borne by households.[3] This leads to underinvestment in women’s schooling.[4] Accentuating the disadvantage for women are the social restrictions on their mobility that prevent an educated woman from entering the labour force and offering support to her household. The educational gender gap, therefore, is not only a reflection of the low economic returns to female education but is also a symptom of the entrenched biases that discourage the aspirations of women and other marginalised communities.[5]
Current literature is less clear about the correlation between household income and female education. One study of urban literacy and gender disparity across India,[6] finds that “neither in terms of absolute levels of literacy nor distributive justice, i.e., reduction in gender and caste disparities, does per capita income have any statistically significant positive bearing upon literacy status of states.” Similarly, another study observes that the importance of poverty as a cause of persistent illiteracy and widening gender gap has been inflated.[7] Meanwhile, the World Bank highlights that the gender gap is affected more by social and cultural factors and less by absolute poverty.[8] It recommends demand-linked measures to address the gender gap, such as awareness campaigns, childcare centres, and the hiring of more female teachers. Similar policy prescriptions are echoed by the Draft National Education Policy 2019 which recommends setting up a Gender-Inclusion Fund to build the nation’s capacity to provide quality and equitable education for all girls.[9]
Most official reports focus on studying the adult literacy rate which measures literacy among individuals aged 15 years and above. However, a focus on just adult literacy is likely to underestimate the progress India has made in improving its literacy outcomes. The adult literacy rate for both males and females increases at a relatively sluggish rate since most of the progress in literacy occurs through improvement in child and youth literacy.[10] Therefore it is important to study the gender gap in literacy for different age cohorts to get a clear understanding of the literacy landscape in the country and identify the key challenges constraining a convergence between male and female literacy. It is the primary aim of this brief.
Data shows that the gender gaps in education, occupation and wages have shrunk sharply between 1983 and 2010 in most indicators; the gaps have narrowed most sharply for the youngest cohorts in the workforce.[11] However, these data are aggregate India-wide; given the variation in policies and outcomes across states, it would be worthwhile to analyse disaggregated data to better identify the causal channels at work.[12] This brief examines the gender gap in literacy in both national and state levels. It uses National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data from rounds 43, 50, 55 and 64 of the Employment and Unemployment Survey, round 71 of the Social Consumption (Education) Survey and the Periodic Labour Force
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