A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LITERACY STATUS BETWEEN EAG AND NON-EAG STATES OF INDIA WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO EAG

Literacy is considered as one of the key foundation stones for any development process in the society. It increases the capabilities of individuals, families and communities to access health, educational, political, economic and cultural opportunities and services. This study deals with the literacy status of Empowered Action Group (EAG) States of India. It highlights the gender disparity in literacy, rural-urban differential in literacy and literacy differential among the various social groups in EAG as well as Non-EAG States. It also examines the district level literacy variations especially in EAG States. The study uses the Census data of 2001 and 2011 to fulfil the objectives. It finds that though the disparity in literacy rates between EAG and Non-EAG States is still substantial, between 2001 and 2011 the growth of literacy rate,especiallyin rural areas, is found to be much higher in EAG States than Non-EAG States. More importantly, between 2001 and 2011, gender disparity in literacy rate has decreased in both EAG and Non-EAG States. *Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, University B.T. & Evening College, Coochbehar, West Bengal. ** Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Bidhannagar College, Kolkata, West Bengal. Introduction Literacy is a human right and the foundation of all developmental processes. It has an intrinsic importance because it increases a person’s freedom and sense of security. It also has an instrumental significance as it strengthens the capabilities of individuals, families and communities to access health, educational, political, economic and cultural opportunities and services (UNESCO, 2005). Low level of literacy and elementary education is considered as one of the basic reasons for India’s poverty and inability to utilise the opportunities of globalisation. In 1991, when India liberalised its economy, its adult literacy rate was significantly lower compared to the so-called ‘East Asian Tigers’ – South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. For example, the adult literacy rate in Taiwan in Md. Selim Reja and Shewli Shabnam 478 Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 36, No. 4, OctoberDecember : 2017 1990 was 93 per cent compared to 48 per cent in India (World Bank, 1992). Modern industries demand many basic skills for which elementary education is essential and secondary education is very helpful. New technologies cannot be used in agriculture if a majority of farmers cannot read, write or count or cannot follow printed or handwritten instructions (Sen, 1994). But unfortunately, 26 per cent of the total population and 31.1 per cent of rural population of India are still illiterate according to the Census of India, 2011 (Registrar General and Census Commissioner, 2011). Here, we have to keep in mind that the census definition of ‘literacy’ is much narrow in comparison to the comprehensive definition of ‘functional literacy’ given by the UNESCO in 1978: “ A person is functionally literate who can engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for effective functioning of his group or community and also for enabling him to continue to use reading, writing and calculation for his own and the community’s development” (UNESCO, 2005). The latest Indian Census has identified‘ a person aged 7 years and above who can both read and write with understanding in any language as literate’. Also, it is not necessary for a person to have received any formal education or passed any minimum educational standard for being treated as ‘literate’. Therefore, it is clear that even taking the minimalist notion of literacy, India’s performance in eliminating illiteracy is surprisingly poor. Elementary education in India has never been prioritised by the elitist ruling class of India and the effect is visible in the abysmal low level of literacy rate in many parts of the country. The condition is worse for females and those belong to backward communities. In this context, it is important to find out the changes in the level of literacy, gender gap and social group differentials in literacy in the backward States of India. The focus of this study is on less developed Empowered Action Group (EAG) States of India, namely, Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand. These States have lagged behind in achieving various socio-demographic goals and therefore, they are chosen as targets for a variety of government health and family planning programmes. In order to achieve national goals, it is imperative that the EAG States must perform better. Our study has been carried out at district level as districts or group of districts can be singled out as the smallest effective units for regional planning. The main objectives of the study are given below. 1. To find out the rural-urban differential, gender disparity and social group differentials in the level of literacy in EAG and non-EAG States of India; 2. To describe the decadal growth rate (2001-2011) of literacy in EAG and NonEAG States. 3. To understand the pattern of literacy rate in the districts of EAG States and also the decadal (2001-2011) growth differential. 4. To observe the literacy status of two very disadvantaged groups of Indian population – rural Scheduled Caste (SC) A Comparative Study of Literacy Status between EAG and Non-EAG States of India........ 479 Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 36, No. 4, OctoberDecember : 2017 females and rural Scheduled Tribe (ST) females in the districts of EAG States of India.


Introduction
Literacy is a human right and the foundation of all developmental processes.It has an intrinsic importance because it increases a person's freedom and sense of security.It also has an instrumental significance as it strengthens the capabilities of individuals, families and communities to access health, educational, political, economic and cultural opportunities and services (UNESCO, 2005).Low level of literacy and elementary education is considered as one of the basic reasons for India's poverty and inability to utilise the opportunities of globalisation.In 1991, when India liberalised its economy, its adult literacy rate was significantly lower compared to the so-called 'East Asian Tigers' -South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.
For example, the adult literacy rate in Taiwan in 1990 was 93 per cent compared to 48 per cent in India (World Bank, 1992).Modern industries demand many basic skills for which elementary education is essential and secondary education is very helpful.New technologies cannot be used in agriculture if a majority of farmers cannot read, write or count or cannot follow printed or handwritten instructions (Sen, 1994).But unfortunately, 26 per cent of the total population and 31.1 per cent of rural population of India are still illiterate according to the Census of India, 2011 (Registrar General andCensus Commissioner, 2011).Here, we have to keep in mind that the census definition of 'literacy' is much narrow in comparison to the comprehensive definition of 'functional literacy' given by the UNESCO in 1978: " A person is functionally literate who can engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for effective functioning of his group or community and also for enabling him to continue to use reading, writing and calculation for his own and the community's development" (UNESCO, 2005).The latest Indian Census has identified' a person aged 7 years and above who can both read and write with understanding in any language as literate' .Also, it is not necessary for a person to have received any formal education or passed any minimum educational standard for being treated as 'literate' .Therefore, it is clear that even taking the minimalist notion of literacy, India's performance in eliminating illiteracy is surprisingly poor.
Elementary education in India has never been prioritised by the elitist ruling class of India and the effect is visible in the abysmal low level of literacy rate in many parts of the country.The condition is worse for females and those belong to backward communities.In this context, it is important to find out the changes in the level of literacy, gender gap and social group differentials in literacy in the backward States of India.The focus of this study is on less developed Empowered Action Group (EAG) States of India, namely, Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand.These States have lagged behind in achieving various socio-demographic goals and therefore, they are chosen as targets for a variety of government health and family planning programmes.In order to achieve national goals, it is imperative that the EAG States must perform better.Our study has been carried out at district level as districts or group of districts can be singled out as the smallest effective units for regional planning.The main objectives of the study are given below.

1.
To To show the gender disparity in literacy we have used a disparity index proposed by David V. Sopher (1974).The index measures disparity between two groups in their possession of a particular property (in this case the literacy rate between males and females).According to Sopher, the disparity index (DI) can be calculated by the following formula: where X 2 > X 1 and Q =100 As male literacy is higher than female, female literacy rate should be taken as X 1 and male literacy rate as X 2 .In case of perfect equality, the value of DI will be zero.Also, higher the value of DI, greater is the extent of disparity.
Later Kundu and Rao (1983) have shown that the above index fails to satisfy the additive monotonocity axiom.So they proposed a modification to this Index as given below.
where X 2 > X 1 and Q=200 We have used the above modified Sopher's technique to compute gender disparity index.
To measure the rural-urban differential in literacy rate, we have used rural-urban differential index as given below.

U -R ID =
T Where, ID= index of rural-urban differential in literacy U= percentage of literates in urban population R= percentage of literates in rural population

T= percentage of literates to total population
The above index is a popular index to show the rural-urban disparity in any field (e.g., Literacy rate = GRL= literacy, health, etc.).The justification for using this index has been discussed elaborately by Krishnan and Shyam (1978: 14).However, ruralurban differential in literacy could have also been shown using Sopher's index.

Status of Literacy: India, EAG and Non-EAG States:
In this section we have presented the overall picture of literacy of EAG States among rural, urban and total population.For comparison purpose, the average literacy rate of India, EAG and Non-EAG States have also been shown.

Gender Disparity in Literacy: India, EAG and
Non-EAG States: Women are less privileged than men in most of the societies in the world.In India a girl child is discriminated even before she is born.In the last decade, the child sex ratio (Number of girls aged 0-6 years per 1000 boys of same age group) has gone down in India and it is awfully skewed in favour of male children.The feminist interpretation of gender discrimination argues that the gendered division of labour and the control over women's sexuality reinforce the subordination of women in society and influence women's educational participation and their educational aspirations (Patel, 2003).
We have already got a picture of gender disparity in literacy from the Tables 1(a), 1(b) and 1(c).Figure 1 shows that the gender disparity in literacy has decreased between 2001 and 2011.Gender disparity is much higher in rural areas than urban areas in both EAG and Non-EAG States.Also, gender disparity in literacy between EAG and Non-EAG States is higher in rural areas compared to urban areas.
In 2001 among the EAG States, the disparity between male and female literacy was the highest in Rajasthan in both rural and urban areas.Also in 2011, it remains at the bottom among the EAG States.In rural areas, the lowest gender difference in literacy is found in Odisha in 2011.Among the urban population in 2011, Uttaranchal shows the minimum gender disparity in literacy.Between 2001 and 2011, malefemale literacy gap has decreased in all the EAG States (Table 3).In three States, namely, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, gender disparity in literacy has declined sharply mainly due to the huge reduction of gender gap in literacy in rural areas.In rural areas, the maximum decrease has occurred in Jharkhand, followed by Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.On the other hand, in urban areas, the maximum decrease has taken place in Bihar, followed by Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.4 that in the last decade the highest growth rate in literacy has occurred among the scheduled tribes.The growth rate in literacy is higher among females than males (1.7 times higher among SCs, 1.8 times greater among STs and 1.6 times higher among others at the national level).Compared to Non-EAG States the decadal growth rate in literacy is higher in EAG States among all the social groups.Between 2001 and 2011, the average growth rates in literacy among females of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes are 97.17 and 96.64 per cent, respectively -much higher than the growth rate of females of 'others' category (58.18 per cent).Now, we will discuss the decadal growth rate in literacy among various social groups based on Table 4.We have broadly categorised the population into scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and others (i.e., not under scheduled caste and scheduled tribe categories).

Status of Literacy in the Districts of EAG States: Findings from Census 2011: According to 2011
inter-district difference in literacy exists among the EAG States of India.While in Uttaranchal the proportion of districts where female literacy rate above the national average is 69 per cent, in Bihar, none of the districts shows female literacy rate above the national average.
Table 5 shows that in Rajasthan out of 33 districts,male literacy rate in 25 districts is below the national average of 82.14 per cent and female literacy rate in 31 districts is below the national average of 65.46 per cent.Among 277 districts, there are four districts where male literacy rate among rural population is below 50 per cent (Alirajpur and Jhabua of Madhya Pradesh and Dakshin Bastar Dantewada and Bijapur of Chhattisgarh).In all these four districts, the rural female literacy is below 30 per cent.Among the EAG States, the lowest rural male literacy rate is found in Alirajpur district (37.85 per cent).The lowest rural female literacy rate is found in Dakshin Bastar Dantewada (24.58 per cent).The highest rural male and rural female literacy rate is found in Rudraprayag district of Uttaranchal (93.90 per cent) and Jagatsinghapur district of Odisha (80.40 per cent), respectively.In all the districts of EAG States, literacy rate among the urban males is above 60 per cent and among urban females is above 50 per cent.The lowest and the highest male literacy rates are found in Rampur district of Uttar Pradesh (60.18 per cent) and Almora of Uttarkhand (97.16 per cent).In fact among the  Fourteen districts of EAG States show decadal growth rate of literacy above 100 per cent among urban females.In Begusarai of Bihar and Rudraprayag of Uttarakhand, the growth rate in literacy between 2001 and 2011 is higher than 400 per cent.In these two districts, the growth rates in literacy among urban males are also exceptionally higher compared to other districts.The decadal growth rate in literacy above 100 per cent among rural females is found in 66 districts.According to the census 2011, among the top 10 districts of EAG States where rural-urban differential index of literacy shows negative or very low values, eight are found in Uttar Pradesh and the remaining two districts belong to Odisha.In Bhadrak of Odisha (RUDI is -0.05) and in Firozabad (RUDI is -0.03) and Kannauj (RUDI is -0.03) of Uttar Pradesh rural literacy rate is higher than urban.It is difficult to say why such anomaly exists.In the rest of districts urban literacy rate is higher than the rural literacy rate.
The highest rural-urban disparity in literacy is found in Alirajpur district of Madhya Pradesh followed by Dakshin Bastar Dantewada of Chhattisgarh and Jhabua of Madhya Pradesh.It has already been established from our analysis that gender disparity in literacy is higher in rural areas.

Literacy Rate among Rural Females of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Categories in EAG States of India, 2011 -A District Level Analysis:
In Indian society discrimination against women is a common phenomenon and the lower female literacy than men is only one manifestation of such discrimination.However, rural women of scheduled caste and scheduled tribe categories are extremely disadvantaged groups of India.Therefore, in this section we will discuss the literacy status of these people.Table 7 shows the disadvantageous position of rural scheduled caste and scheduled tribe females in the field of literacy.While analysing the district level literacy rate of rural female scheduled caste and scheduled tribe population, one should be very cautious because in some districts the number of scheduled caste or scheduled tribe population is extremely low.For example, in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh, the literacy rate of rural scheduled tribe females is found zero.Actually, according to 2011 census, there are only 4 rural scheduled tribe females in that district and none of them are literate.Therefore, we find such an abnormal literacy rate.However, it is found that among 277 districts under EAG States, in 170 districts (61 per cent) the rural female literacy rate among scheduled caste population is less than 50 per cent.198 districts (71 per cent) under EAG States show rural female literacy rate among scheduled tribes below 50 per cent.

Conclusion
In conclusion, we will just highlight the major findings of this study.The disparity in literacy rates between EAG and Non-EAG States is still substantial.However,between 2001 and 2011, the growth rate of rural literacy is found much higher in EAG States than Non-EAG States.In urban areas, the decadal growth rate in literacy does not show much variation between EAG and Non-EAG States.Between 2001 and 2011, gender disparity and rural-urban differentials in literacy has decreased both in EAG and Non-EAG States.In India, gender inequality in literacy is much higher in rural areas than in urban areas.
In Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh in the last decade a remarkable increase has been found in rural female literacy rate which has helped to improve the overall literacy rates in these districts.Compared to Non-EAG States, the decadal growth rate in literacy is higher in EAG States among all the social groups -scheduled caste, scheduled tribe, and Non-SC/ST.Uttarakhand which was part of Uttar Pradesh till 2000, shows the highest literacy rate-the minimum gender disparity and the lowest rural-urban differentials among the EAG States.At district level analysis, we have found that according to 2011 census, among 277 districts under EAG States, 222 districts show literacy rate below the national average (74.04 per cent).There exists a huge variation in gender disparity and rural-urban differentials in literacy rate among the districts of EAG States.Rural scheduled tribe females show an exceptionally low rate of literacy.

Figure 1 :
Figure 1: Gender Disparity in Literacy in India, EAG and Non-EAG States, 2001 and 2011

Figure 2 :
Figure 2: Rural-Urban Differentials in Literacy in India, EAG and Non-EAG States Maps 2 (a), 2 (b) and 2 (c) show the growth rate in literacy in the districts of EAG States between 2001 and 2011 among the total, rural and urban population, respectively.Map 2 (a): Decadal Growth Rate in Literacy in the Districts of EAG States Map 2 (b): Decadal Growth Rate in Male Literacy in the Districts of EAG States Map 2 (c): Decadal Growth Rate in Female Literacy in the Districts of EAG States The above maps show the districts where decadal growth rate in literacy is above 60 per cent, particularly in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar.
and in Jalor districts, respectively.Maps 3 (a), 3 (b) and 3 (c) show that gender disparity in literacy is comparatively higher in most parts of Rajasthan.Map 3 (a): Gender Disparity in Literacy Among the Districts of EAG States, 2011 Map 3 (b): Gender Disparity in Literacy (Rural) Among the Districts of EAG States, 2011Rural-Urban Differentials in Literacy Rate in EAG States of India in 2011 -A District Level Analysis:Map 4 shows the rural-urban disparity in literacy among the districts of EAG States.The above map shows that the rural-urban differential in literacy is comparatively higher in most of Rajasthan and in southern Madhya Pradesh, northern Bihar, western and north-eastern Jharkhand and also in southern part of Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

Map 1: EAG States in India
According to 2011 census, the average literacy rate of EAG States is 67.43 per cent, 10.17 rate of the EAG States was 64.0 per cent among the rural population and 79.12 per cent among the urban population.For Non-EAG States, it was 71.77 per cent among the rural population and 86.31 per cent among the urban population.In 2001, among the EAG States both urban male and female literacy rate was the lowest in Uttar Pradesh and the highest in Orissa.These two States also hold their respective positions in 2011 census.From Table 1(a), 1(b) and 1(c) it is markedly visible that the literacy rate of Uttaranchal is substantially higher than the other EAG States.

in India, EAG and Non-EAG States in 2001 and 2011: Rural
Computed from Primary Census Abstract, Census of India 2011 and 2001, Table C-8.
Source: Computed from Primary Census Abstract, Census of India 2011 and 2001, Table C-8.Table1(c): Literacy Rate (%) in India, EAG and Non-EAG States in 2001 and 2011: Urban Source:

Table 2 : Growth Rate in Literacy between 2001 and 2011 in India, EAG and Non-EAG States
India 2011 anded from Primary Census Abstract, Census ofIndia 2011 and 2001, Table C-8.

Urban Differentials in Literacy: India, EAG and Non-EAG States:
Literacy rate is higher in urban areas than in rural areas in India.Educational opportunities in rural India are very poor compared to urban areas.Also in urban places people are mainly engaged in tertiary and secondary sectors of economy.They require higher level of education than the workers engaged in primary sector in the villages.The rural-urban differential in literacy in the country : Computed from Census of India 2011,Primary Census Abstract; Census of India 2001, Table C-8.Note: GDI refers to Gender Disparity Index in literacy. Source

Table 3 (Contd.....) Differentials in Literacy Rate among Social Groups: India, EAG and Non-EAG States
:Literacy rate varies across social groups in India.Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are economically and socially backward classes in India.Literacy rates of SC and ST population (total, rural and urban) of EAG and Non-EAG States have been given in the appendices from 2(a) to 3(c).Literacy rate of scheduled caste and scheduled tribe population is below the national average.Literacy rate EAG States, the literacy rate has increased from 56.33 to 64.94 per cent among males and 28.51 to 42.75 per cent among females.As expected, among both scheduled caste and scheduled tribe population, literacy rate is higher in Non-EAG States than EAG States.Considering the EAG States in 2011, the highest and the lowest literacy rates among scheduled castes are found in Uttaranchal and Bihar, respectively.Among scheduled tribes, the highest literacy rate is found in Uttaranchal and the lowest in Madhya Pradesh.

Table 4 : Decadal Growth Rate in Literacy (%) between 2001 and 2011 Among Social Groups: India, EAG and Non-EAG States
Source: Computed from Primary Census Abstract, Census of India 2011 and 2001-C Series.

Table 6 (
b) presents some information about the growth rate in literacy of rural females.According to Table 6 (a), in Uttaranchal in eight districts the decadal growth rate in literacy is below 50 per cent and none of the districts shows the growth rate in literacy above 100 per cent.

Table 7 : Variation in Literacy Rate Among Different Population Groups in India, EAG and Non-EAG States, 2011
: Computed from Primary Census Abstract and Census of India 2011. Source