♤ EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENTS

No doubt, India has attained significant improvement in women’s literacy which was 8.9 % in 1951, improved to 65.5 % as on 2011. As a result the male-female gap in literacy has narrowed down from 26.6% in 1981 to 16.7% in 2011. However, the Human Development Report-2011 observed that the population with at least secondary education (% age 25 and above) was only 26.6% for females as against 50.4% for males.(Human Development Report-2011).

Net Attendance Ratio at primary and upper primary levels in rural areas and in urban areas was found for females were completely low during 2007-08 (India Human Development Report-2011). Net Attendance Ratio at higher secondary level for females was only 20.0% in rural areas and 39.0% in urban areas. Inspite of the implementation of programmes like “Sarva Siksha Abhiyan”, still 21.8% of the girl children (6-17 years age) were found out of schools.

Although the gender differential in literacy has declined over time, the differential remains high even in the youngest age group among those 15-19 years of age, the percentage of females who are literate (74%) is 15%, which is less than the males (89%). The National Family Health Survery-3 (2009) observed that there are great disparities in literacy by wealth especially for Women.