Women’s Literacy in India

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A women's literacy program supported by ProLiteracy in the Tamil Nadu region of Southern India

We thought this was an interesting article—The Times of India reports that 72 percent of neo-literates in India are women.  

A literacy program sponsored by the Indian government has enrolled more than 19 million adults since 2009, and 72 percent of these participants are women. Over the past two years alone, more than ten million women have taken the initial assessment required to participate in adult literacy training.

“The results are very encouraging,” said Jagmohan Singh Raju, joint secretary of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, as quoted in The Times of India. The ministry plans to launch a campaign on September 8, coinciding with International Literacy Day, to increase awareness of its adult literacy efforts in more rural areas.

The program, called Saakshar Bharat, includes about 300 hours of learning designed to familiarize students with basic arithmetic, road signs, and simple directions. The curriculum seeks to enable those who graduate to read out loud at a speed of 30 words per minute and take dictation at a rate of seven words per minute.

Though male literacy in India has rapidly increased over the last decade to about 82 percent, female literacy lagged behind at 65 percent as of 2011.  The mission of Saakshar Bharat, said former President Pratibha Devisingh Patil, is to “make every woman literate in the next five years.”  According to recent enrollment statistics, they are well on their way.


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