FOREWORD
It has been envisaged in the Eighth Five Year Plan document that the district will be treated as a unit of educational planning in the Eighth Plan and that literacy programmes will be launched in districts /regions which are educationally backward or have high concentration of SC/ST population or have low female literacy By this time, Total Literacy Campaigns (TLCs) have been launched in about 200 districts of the country By the end of the Eighth Five Year Plan 345 districts are expected to be covered by the TLCs.
For proper planning and implementation of these literacy campaigns, it is very essential to have district level statistical database for literacy National Institute of Adult Education set up by the Deptt. of Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development has interval taken up building up of statistical database for literacy as one of its programme areas. Volume I of the Statistical database for Literacy was released on International Literacy Day 1992. Comparative data upto district level on literacy for 1981 and 1991 for age group 7 and above was brought out in that volume. While 1981 data was computed and analysed on the basis of final 1981 census, 1991 data was based on provisional figures of 1991 census. Analysis of the final data on population and literacy of the 1991 census has now been given in Volume II.
Table 1-3 of this volume give information on Total population of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes; and indicators of population growth, sex ratio, birth rate, death rate and infant mortality rate. Tables 4-8 describe literacy situation for age group 7 and above at national, state and district levels by rural/urban areas and by sex. Tables 9-12 bring out comparative literacy situation by age groups and by educational levels for the years 1961, 1971 and 1981. This data for 1991 is not yet available. Tables 13 and 14 contain Gross Enrolment Ratios and Dropout Rates at primary level. Brief analytical note based on the above data also forms part of this brochure. Frequency distribution of districts by literacy rates, list of districts having literacy rate of below 30 percent for all persons and below 20 percent for females have been given in Annexures I-IV. Annexure-V contains list of districts covered under Total Literacy Campaigns.
It has been observed that literacy rates for age group 7 and above (not for total population including children of 0-6 age group) are now being used at the national and state levels as has been decided by the Planning Commission and the Registrar General and Census Commissioner in consultation with the Deptt. of Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India. But at the district level, crude literacy rates based on total population still continue to be used in many cases. This booklet provides the needed data on literates, illiterates by sex and by rural/urban areas for population aged 7 years and above. I hope this data will be very useful particularly for district level planning.
Planning and compilation of the booklet has been done by Shri Prem Chand, Fellow in the National Institute of Adult Education. Shri Swarnendu Biswas and Ms. vinita Gupta, Project Assistants have helped in compilation and processing of the data for this booklet. I would like to record my deep sense of appreciation for the initiative taken and tremendous efforts put in by Shri Prem Chand. I also appreciate the work done by Shri Biswas, Ms. Vinita Gupta and others in bringing out this booklet.
SUDEEP BANERJEE Director General (NLM) Dated: 2.8.93 and Vice Chairman (NIAE)