International Literacy Day: How Literate Is India?

As the day marks 50th International Literacy day under the banner "Reading the Past, Writing the Future", we provide you with the information about the literacy rates of our country.

 

International Literacy Day, was first celebrated in 1966 when the UNESCO officially proclaimed September 8 as the International Literacy Day.

The idea behind celebrating and dedicating a day for literacy was to actively promote literacy among the international community as an instrument to empower individuals, communities and societies.

The main global celebration will be held at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris in the form of a two-day conference on September 8-9, 2016 . The highlight of the event is literacy prizes.

UN report finds India 50 years behind the education goalsUN report finds India 50 years behind the education goals

The following list shows the literacy rates in India according to the latest Census 2011.

Illiteracy rate in India 22%
Literacy among communities
Most literate community Jains with 86.73% being literate and only 13.57% are illiterate
Highest Illiterate community Muslims - 42.72% illiteracy
Illiteracy rate of Hindus 36.40%
Illiteracy rate of Sikhs 32.49%
Illiteracy rate of Buddhists 28.17%
Illiteracy rate of Christians 25.66%
Literacy among gender
Percent of men studied upto graduation 61.6%
Percent of women studied upto graduation38.4%
Literacy rate according to states
Most literate state Kerala with 93.91% literacy
Lakshadweep 92.28% literacy
Mizoram 91.58% literacy
Tripura 87.75% literacy
Goa 87.40% literacy
Least literate state Bihar with 63.82% literacy
Telangana 66.50% literacy

As per UNESCO's new Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report, India is expected to achieve universal primary education in 2050, universal lower secondary education in 2060 and universal upper secondary education in 2085.

International Literacy Day: How Literate Is India?

In 2014, the literacy rate of India increased by 10%.

India's literacy rate has increased six times since the end of the British rule - from 12 per cent to 74 per cent in 2011. However, India has the world's largest population of illiterates.

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