Literacy Rate in India

Literacy Rate in India - To know development in a society, Literacy is another proper indicator of economic development. For purpose of census, a person in age limit of seven and above, who can both write and read with understanding in any of the language is considered as a literate in India.

As per 2001 Population Census of India, the Literacy rate of India has shown as improvement at 65.38%. It consists of male literacy rate 75.96% and female literacy rate is 54.28%. Kerala with 90.86% literacy rate is the top state in India. Mizoram and Lakshadweep are at second and third position with 88.80% and 86.66% literacy rate respectively. Bihar with 46% literacy rate is the last in terms of literacy rate in India.

Government of India has taken several measures to improve the literacy rate in villages and towns of India. State Governments has been directed to ensure and improve literacy rate in districts and villages where people are very poor. There has been a good improvement in literacy rate of India in last 10 years but there is still a long way to go.

List of Steps taken by Government of India to improve Literacy Rate in India:

• Free education programs to poor people living in villages and towns.
• Setting up of new school and colleges at district and state levels.
• Several committees have been formed to ensure proper utilization of funds allotted to improve literacy rate.

Ranking of States and Union Territories by Literacy Rate
State / U.T.	Literacy Rate	Male Literacy Rate	Female Literacy Rate
Kerala	90.92	94.20	87.86
Mizoram	88.49	90.69	86.13
Lakshadweep (U.T.)	87.52	93.15	81.56
Goa	82.32	88.88	75.51
Delhi (U.T.)	81.82	87.37	75.00
Chandigarh (U.T.)	81.76	85.65	76.65
Pondicherry (U. T.)	81.49	88.89	74.13
Andaman & Nicobar (U.T.)	81.18	86.07	75.29
Daman & Diu (U.T.)	81.09	88.40	70.37
Maharashtra	77.27	86.27	67.51
Himachal Pradesh	77.13	86.02	68.08
Tripura	73.66	81.47	65.41
Tamil Nadu	73.47	82.33	64.55
Uttaranchal	72.28	84.01	60.26
Gujarat	69.97	80.50	58.60
Punjab	69.95	75.63	63.55
Sikkim	69.68	76.73	61.46
West Bengal	69.22	77.58	60.22
Manipur	68.87	77.87	59.70
Haryana	68.59	79.25	56.31
Nagaland	67.11	71.77	61.92
Karnataka	67.04	76.29	57.45
Chhatisgarh	65.18	77.86	52.40
Assam	64.28	71.93	56.03
Madhya Pradesh	64.11	76.80	50.28
Orissa	63.61	75.95	50.97
Meghalaya	63.31	66.14	60.41
Andhra Pradesh	61.11	70.85	51.17
Rajasthan	61.03	76.46	44.34
Dadra & Nagar Haveli (U.T.)	60.03	73.32	42.99
Uttar Pradesh	57.36	70.23	42.98
Arunachal Pradesh	54.74	64.07	44.24
Jammu & Kashmir	54.46	65.75	41.82
Jharkhand	54.13	67.94	39.38
Bihar	47.53	60.32	33.57