EDUCATION AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT: A PRE- REQUISITE FOR INCLUSIVE GROWTH Dr. S.S.S.Chauhan Dr. Deepti Mrs. Radha Parmar

INTRODUCTION With a population of more than 120 million; India has an advantage of ‘demographic dividend’ as more than 57% of its population is in the age group of 15 to 60 years. The basic requirement for harvesting the ‘demographic dividend’ is skill development of the work force. So far as skill development is concerned, lack of elementary education is in the core of the problem.

In the last decade there has been a significant increase in gross enrollment ratio at primary and secondary level; but there is still a huge gap in the gross enrolment ratio at the higher education level. Every census since 1881 has indicated rising literacy in the country, but the population growth rate has been high enough so that the absolute number of illiterates rose with every decade. Education and Health are the key components of inclusive growth. Literacy, has a direct bearing on inclusive growth. Low literacy level results into a low HDI, GDI, and PQLI etc.

METHODOLOGY The paper is based on the secondary data received from Census of India 2001 and 2011.The district wise literacy rates for total population; male population and female population are further segregated for each state and union territories into seven groups. An intensive analysis is done by fixing the threshold limit of literacy rate less than forty per cent through the identification of districts under three categories-(i)literacy rate less than 30 per cent ,(ii).30-40 per cent and (iii) 40-50 per cent.

STATUS OF LITERACY IN INDIA According to 2011 census in terms of absolute numbers, the increase in the 15-34 age group of population is dramatic from 174.26 million (31.79%) in 1970 to 354.5 million (34.43%) in 2000, the youth segment of the population is projected to peak at 484.86 million in 2030. According to the Indian labour report, 300 million youth would enter the labour force by 2025 and 25 per cent of the world workers in the next three years would be Indians . However the ‘demographic dividend’ is not going to last long. China is a tough competitor of India in world labour market.

India’s literacy rate after 64 years of independence is 74 India’s literacy rate after 64 years of independence is 74.04 per cent in 2011 as compared to 93 per cent in China, as such the advantages of demographic dividend can not be fully utilized. A large part of India’s schools are of poor quality, teachers are inadequately prepared, weakly motivated, poorly paid and frequently absent. Literacy rate for total population increased from 18.33 per cent in 1951 to 74.06 per cent in 2011.Male literacy rate increased from 27.16 per cent to 82.14 per cent and female literacy rate increased from 8.36 per cent to 65.43 per cent during the same period.

A significant milestone reached in census 2011, is that total number of illiterates has come down from 30.41 crore in 2001 to 27.29 crore in 2011, a decline of 3.12 crore persons out of the total of 21.77 crore literates added during the decade, females (11.01 crore) outnumber males (10.76 crore). These changes are a clear indication of the fact that gender gap in literacy is shrinking which will have far reaching consequences on the development of the society.

Inter-State and Intra-State Variation in Literacy Achievements on literacy front are not same across the states in the country. There exist wide variations in the level of literacy among the various states as well as within the state. Ten states and union territories, including Kerala, Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Tripura, Goa, Daman and Diu, Pondicherry, Chandigarh, National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, have attained literacy rate of above 85 per cent, the target set by the Planning Commission to be achieved by 2011-12. Six Indian states account for about 70% of all illiterates in India: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.

Slightly less than half of all Indian illiterates (48 Slightly less than half of all Indian illiterates (48.12%) are in the six Hindi speaking states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. A comparison of data shows that no district of the country has literacy rate below 30 per cent in 2011,while in 2001 one district (Alirajpur-29.87% of M.P) had literacy rate less than 30 per cent for total population. In 2011,11 districts have female literacy rate between 30-40 per cent, one district has male literacy rate between 30-40 per cent and 3 districts have literacy rate between 30-40 per cent for total population.

Only 20 districts have total literacy, in 2011, 391 districts (61 Only 20 districts have total literacy, in 2011, 391 districts (61.1 per cent) have literacy rate more than 60 per cent ,while 581 districts have male literacy rate more than 60 per cent. Women of the country are at a disadvantageous position, as only 32.7 per cent (209) districts have female literacy rate more than 60 per cent. Majority of districts in bottom 20 districts list of 2011 for literacy rate of total population are in the states of Arunachal Pradesh (2), Bihar (2), Chhattisgarh (3), Jharkhand (1) , and Karnataka (1) M.P. (3),U.P. (4), Orissa (4).

Only one district (Alirajpur of M. P Only one district (Alirajpur of M.P.) has literacy rate below 40 per cent in 2011. District Bijapur (Chhattisgarh) still remains at 639th place in 2011. Jhabua (MP) improved its position and reached at 637th place in 2011 from 638th place in 2001. But Dakshin Bastar Dantewada (Chhattisgarh) slipped to 638th place in 2011 from 637th place in 2001. Katihar and Madhepura (Bihar) have managed to go out of the bottom 20 districts lists. But Budaun (UP) and Yadgir (Karnataka) joined the league of bottom 20 districts.

Concluding Observation In census 2011,243 districts have poor state of female literacy level, 11 districts have poor state of male literacy and 63 districts have poor state of literacy as a whole. The central government nor the state government were able to provide required opportunities to people of these most backward districts despite the ‘implementation’ of several programmes of advancement of adult literacy and elementary education during the last 60 years of planning. In the list of most backward districts majority of districts of this list have predominantly large population of Scheduled Tribes, Schedule Castes.

Census data 2001 reveals that Muslim literacy rate, particularly female literacy rate, in the state of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Haryana is relatively low as compared to literacy rate of other communities. STs and SCs and Muslims are in the grip of vicious circle of unemployment- poverty-ignorance- illiteracy-malnutrition. They are poor because they are either unemployed or employed in poorly paid jobs; they are unemployed or employed in poorly paid job because they are unskilled; they are unskilled because they are illiterate.

Tribal districts in the states of M Tribal districts in the states of M.P, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand and Bihar are facing left wing extremism which has dameged the drive of literacy. Exclusion of Tribals, Dalits and Muslims from the main stream of higher economic growth is a matter of serious concern. Breaking of vicious circle of “unemployment-poverty-ignorance-illiteracy-mal-nutrition” is of paramount importance. An area specific approach based on the local socio-economic characteristics has to be adopted which will cover Literacy, employment generation, poverty alleviation and skill development.