literacy in bihar

One of the important characteristics of the population, on which information is obtained in the census, is literacy. For the purpose of census, a person is deemed to be literate if he or she can read and write with an understanding of any language. A person who can merely read but cannot write is not considered as literate. A person could, however, be a literate without having had any formal education or having passed any minimum educational standard. Ability to merely sign one’s name is not adequate to qualify a person as literate. In the earlier Censuses, that is, till 1971, all children of the age of 4 years and less were treated as illiterate, even if some among them attended school and had picked up reading and writing of a few odd words. However, since 1981, the population aged seven years and above is to be classified as literate or illiterate. In view of this, during 2001 Census, the question on literacy was canvassed only for population aged seven years and above.


Following this criterion, the total number of persons returned as literate in Bihar in 2001 Census is 31675607. Males greatly outnumber females, as among the total literates 20978955 are males and 10696652 females, that is to say, for every 2 literate males there is only 1 literate female. Male literacy rate is almost double (60.32) the female literacy rate (33.57) in Bihar according to Census of India 2001. It can be noted from Table–4 placed at Annexure–4 that literacy rate for Bihar, according to the provisional population totals in 2001 Census, is 47.53% as against 37.49% in 1991 Census. Although the literacy rate in the state has increased by roughly 10 percentage points during 1991-2001, it is still low as compared to the all India average of 65.38 percent. However, it can be said that literacy rates have shown an upward trend over the decade for both males and females (females having an edge over males). The male literacy rate has gone up to 60.32% in 2001 from 51.47% in 1991 while the female literacy rate has gone up to 33.57% in 2001 from 21.99% in 1991.

More detail : http://gov.bih.nic.in/Profile/default.htm