Resumo de Female Literacy In India

Female literacy In India

Literacy
is universally recognised as a powerful instrument of social change. The level
of literacy is undoubtedly one of the most important indicators of social,
cultural and health development among the tribal communities. Literacy is
important for the young girl; it had correlations with the survival of her
children. Infant mortality is found to decrease significantly when the mother
is educated upto the primary level and above. The Indian tribes have been
exposed to literacy only recently (Moonis Raza,
et al., 1990). By and large, their response to programmes of literacy
and of formal education varied significantly between tribes and from region.
These responses depended on their socio-cultural, economic and demographic
characteristics and on the magnitude and direction of the forces of
modernisation, such as urbanisation and industrialisation (Bose, 1970).
The influence of Christianity in some tribal areas had also played a
significant role (Madan, 1951).
The census recognised an individual as literate if one could both read and
write with understanding in any of the languages. According to the 1991 census
data, excluding Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, the literacy rate among the general
population aged 7 years and above was found to be 52.19 (64.20 for males and
39.19 for females). Literacy among the tribals was found to be very low i.e.
25.9 percent and especially so among he tribal females (14.5 percent) (NSSO, 1991).
Most of the literates among the Scheduled Tribes were literate only upto the
primary level. Within the country, the level of literacy among the tribals
varied widely. At one end were tribal communities like the Malapan daram,
Suhang etc. in the South with hardly any literates among them, whereas on the
other end, there were communities like Lushai in North-East Himalaya with more
than 40 percent literacy (Vidyarthi,
1983). The lowest level of literacy among the tribals was recorded
in Andhra pradesh [14.5 percent] and the highest in Mizoram[80.0 percent]. The
lowest level of literacy among the females was found in Rajasthan [4.1
percent]. Among the territories. The highest literacy among tribals was
observed in Lakshadweep[79.1percent] (Table 2).
Studies on some individual tribes revealed the following trends of literacy :- Low
litracy rate [3.3 percent] was observed among the primitive Abhujmaria tribe of
Bastar district, Madhya Pradesh (RMRC. 1992).
The educational status among the Santal tribe of Mayurbhanj district, Orissa
showed marked sexual differentials.51.6 percent males were found to be literate
against 19.4 percent females. A similar literacy trend was observed among the
polyandrous Jaunsaris of JAUNSAR Bawar, Dehradunn, i.e. 45.79 percent literate
among the males and 15.26 percent literate among females. Kora females of
Midnapur district, West Bengal had a very low
literacy level [2.66 percent] (Datta, 1990).
The female literacy rate among the Dudh Khana tribal group of Sundargarh
district, Orissa was found to be much higher, i.e., 41 percent as compared to
that of the Scheduled Tribe females (14.5 percent) (Basu, et al.,
1993). Literacy among the tribals of the North-Eastern region could
be due to the influence of Christianity. Literacy among tribals in general had
improved slightly over time. Marked improvement over 1981 was notices in some
of the States of North-Eastern, Western and island regions. In other, specially
in the Eastern and Central regions and in some of the States of other regions,
improvement in literacy level was still lagging behind (Sinha, 1990).

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