Literacy

Kerala with its rich culture of respecting womanhood had given due value to her rights and needs boosting her self esteem. In spite of its varied traditions, all have offered more scope and place for women than they experienced elsewhere in India.

While reviewing the history of Kerala, we could see her transformation into the forefront of the society as gradual but a cautious one. Yet, she was not aloof from the errands of rearing children and household chores. Still, she seems pleasing and gratifying the needs of the family and maintains an inimitable status of her own apart from the counterparts and women of other states. We pride ourselves on being the state with the highest literacy rate among women, a state where female to male ratio is higher, suggesting that there are fewer numbers of selective abortion or female infanticide. The Kerala evidence suggests that literate men have literate sons, but literate women have literate families.

As per the norms of National Literacy Mission, a literacy rate above 90 % shall be treated as complete literacy. On this basis, Kerala (90.86%) was declared a, 'Fully Literate State', on April 18th, 1991. 87.86 per cent of women in the state are literate which is extremely higher (33.7) than the national literacy rate of women. The break-up of male and female literacy rates are 94.2 and 87.86 per cent respectively. It seems that more than three-fourth percent of the total population are literate and there exists not much discrepancy between male and female population. The female literacy rate was growing at 1.69 per cent (1991-2001) as against the male literacy growth rate of 0.58 per cent in the state of Kerala. Some states are still lagging behind the level attained by Kerala in 1951.

Female Literacy rate - India and Kerala

Male - female gap in literacy rate in Kerala has been declining at higher rate. For instance, in 1951, male-female literacy gap was 21.9 per cent and in 2001 it is only 6.3 per cent . At all India level the gap is 21.7 per cent in 2001.

District-wise data showed that ‘Kottayam’ district ranks first both in male and female literacy rates and it is the first town in India to have achieved 100% literacy (a remarkable feature achieved as early as in 1989). The lowest literacy rate was found in Palakkad district in both sexes. It is to be noted that the female literacy rate in the district is lesser than male by
10 per cent. It is not a matter of great concern as the district lags behind in most aspects of development, compared to the State average.

With regard to scheduled castes population the distribution was 88.1% (males) and 77.6% (females) and that of scheduled tribes it was 70.8 percent and 58.1 per cent only.

Statistics showed that the female literacy levels in Kerala are improving over time. These literacy levels are highly correlated with the health status of the population. Kerala has the lowest infant mortality rates and the highest life expectancies of all the states. The pace of progress in the female literacy rate from 36.43 percent (1951) to 87.86 per cent (2001) was remarkable and reasonably a good indicator of development in the society.

Women’s literacy in Kerala with insignificant gender and spatial disparities has been cited as a principal mover of many of the positive demographic indicators of the state. These indicators had resulted in the enhanced health status of women in Kerala. Female literacy and education are crucial determinants of child survival, general health and hygiene.