Literacy among Muslims has improved: Minister

The literacy among Muslims has improved from 1999-2000 to 2007-08, Minority Affairs Minister K. Rahman Khan said Thursday.

"Literacy among Muslims increased from 52.1 percent in 1999-2000 to 63.5 percent in 2007-08 in rural areas and from 69.8 percent to 75.1 percent in urban areas," Khan said while addressing a meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) here.

According to him, the literacy rate of Muslims as a ratio of the national average has also gone up from 0.93 in 1999-2000 to 0.95 in 2007-08 for rural areas and from 0.87 in 1999-2000 to 0.89 in 2007-08 for urban areas, he said.

Khan said as per the District Information System for Education (DISE) reports, the percentage of enrolment of Muslim children to total enrolment at the primary level which was 10.49 percent in 2007-08, has now gone up to 12.56 percent for rural areas and to 15.98 percent for urban areas.

Similarly, the percentage of enrolment of Muslim children to total enrollment at upper primary level which was 8.54 percent in 2007-08, has now gone up to 10.9 percent for rural areas and to 13.76 percent for urban areas, the minister said.

But he noted that as per the 2001 census, the minority community's literacy was 59.1 percent, much below the national average of 64.8 percent. "As per the 2001 census, the literacy rate among Muslims was 59.1 percent, much below the national average of 64.8 percent," he said.

Khan said his ministry launched three scholarship schemes: pre-matric, post-matric and merit-cum-means based covering eligible minority students from class 1 to Ph.D. level, including professional and technical courses.