Illiteracy

what is literacy?
Literacy is traditionally understood as the
ability to read, write, and use arithmetic.
The modern term's meaning has been
expanded to include the ability to use
language, numbers, images, computers, and
other basic means to understand,
communicate, gain useful knowledge and use
the dominant symbol systems of a culture.
The inability to do so is called illiteracy or
analphabetism

History of literacy
Literacy is thought to have first emerged with
the development of numeracy and
computational devices as early as 8,000 BCE.
Literacy in that era only emerged due to the
need of managing the production and trading
quantities.
People developed a language of their own it was
called the cuneiform script.
They wrote on clay tablets, had specific signs
for quantity measurement and also ideograms
that depicted objects being counted.

 The Chinese notations were found inscribed

on oracle bones, these contained logograms
and numerals.
These examples indicate that early acts of
literacy were closely tied to power and chiefly
used for management practices, and probably
less than 1% of the population was literate.
Many classical scholars, credit the Ancient
Greeks for creating the first alphabetic
system (c. 750 BCE) that used distinctive
signs for consonants and vowels.
Discoveries were made everyday and we
finally got a language.

Kinds of illiteracy

Visual
Trans-illiteracy
Technological
Statistical
Scientific
Reading and writing
Racial
Numerical
Mental health
Media

Information
Health
Functional
Financial
Emotional
Ecological
Cultural
Critical
Computer
Agricultural

Regional Disparities
Cross-national comparisons of literacy rates are
imperfect, given that different countries define literacy
in different ways. However, available global data
indicates significant variations in literacy rates
between world regions. North America, Europe, and
Central Asia have achieved almost full adult literacy
(individuals at or over the age of 15) for both men and
women. Most countries in East Asia and the Pacific, as
well as Latin American and the Caribbean, are above a
90% literacy rate for adults. Illiteracy persists to a
greater extent in other regions: 2013 UNESCO Institute
for Statistics (UIS) data indicates adult literacy rates
of only 78.12% in the Arab States, 67.55% in South
and West Asia, and 59.76% in Sub-Saharan Africa.

 In much of the world, high youth literacy

rates suggest that illiteracy will become less
and less common as younger generations
with higher educational attainment levels
replace older ones. However, in sub-Saharan
Africa and South and West Asia, where the
vast majority of the world's illiterate youth
live, lower school enrollment implies that
illiteracy will persist to a greater degree.
According to 2013 UIS data, the youth
literacy rate (individuals ages 15 to 24) is
84.03% in South and West Asia, and 70.06%
in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Gender Inequality
On a worldwide scale, illiteracy disproportionately
impacts women. According to 2015 UIS data
collected by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics,
about two-thirds (63%) of the world's illiterate
adults are women. This disparity was even starker
in previous decades: from 1970 to 2000, the
global gender gap in literacy decreased by
roughly 50%.
In general, the gender gap in literacy is not as
pronounced as the regional gap; that is,
differences between countries in overall literacy
are often larger than gender differences within
countries.

Challenges
Efforts to expand literacy skills among women
and girls often face deeply rooted social
barriers. Simply making literacy classes
available can be ineffective if attendance is
not considered a valuable use of the limited
time of women and girls.
Generational dynamics can also perpetuate
these disparities: illiterate parents may not
readily appreciate the value of literacy for their
daughters, particularly in traditional, rural
societies with expectations that girls will
remain at home.

Illiteracy in India
Illiteracy in India is characterized by wide gaps
between the urban and rural populations. The
rural population depends mainly on agriculture
and the rate of illiteracy is high, while the urban
population is more of the employee class and
also more educated. Even amongst the male
and female population, there is a wide disparity
in literacy. The male literacy rate is 75.96% and
female literacy rate is 54.28%. The social
system in India promotes education for the male
gender while the female population, especially
in the deep interiors of the country, is kept away
from schools.

 Several efforts have been made on part of

the government to deal with illiteracy. The
National Policy of Education -1986,
declared that the whole nation must
pledge itself to the work of eradicating
illiteracy, particularly in the 15-35 age
group. The National Literacy Mission came
into being in 1988 and started striving to
involve all sections of the community in
the literacy endeavor. The 1992 Education
Policy envisaged free and compulsory
elementary education of satisfactory
quality to all children up to the age of 14
before India entered the 21st Century.

 The Supreme Court in its 1993 ruling held that

children had a fundamental right to free education.
Ex President A.P.J Abdul Kalam gave his assent to
the Constitution (83rd Amendment) Bill, 2000, and
the right to education was incorporated in the
Constitution as a fundamental right. The country
had failed to implement the provisions of Article
45, providing for compulsory and free education of
children up to 14 years of age within 10 years from
the commencement of the Constitution.
India is developing but at a very slow rate, this is
not the fault of a corrupt government; it is due to
this problem of illiteracy only. Our government is of
the people, for the people and by the people, but
what is the use if people can not even make the
right choice?

 Not only the government, but every

literate citizen should contribute in
battling with the demon of illiteracy. Our
motto should be each one teach one, if
we are to become a developed nation.
One of the initiatives is Teach India,
whose aim is to provide a platform to
educated Indians to provide assistance in
basic education to the unprivileged
children.
In the words of the new President of the
United States, Barack Obama Change
will not come if we wait for some other

Consequences of illiteracy
The consequences of illiteracy are
many and harmful in several
respects. As well as affecting
illiterate individuals themselves in
their daily lives and often
jeopardizing their future, this scourge
has a significant effect on society,
both socially and economically.

For individuals
Limited ability to obtain and understand essential information;
Unemployment: The unemployment rate is 24 times higher among
those with little schooling than among those with Bachelors degrees;
Lower income;
Lower-quality jobs;
Reduced access to lifelong learning and professional development;
Precarious financial position;
Little value is given to education and reading within the family, and
this often leads to intergenerational transmission of illiteracy;
Low self-esteem, which can lead to isolation;
Impact on health: Illiterate individuals have more workplace accidents,
take longer to recover and more often misuse medication through
ignorance of health care resources and because they have trouble
reading and understanding the relevant information (warnings,
dosage, contraindications, etc.).

 Precarious financial position;

Little value is given to education and reading
within the family, and this often leads to
intergenerational transmission of illiteracy;
Low self-esteem, which can lead to isolation;
Impact on health: Illiterate individuals have
more workplace accidents, take longer to
recover and more often misuse medication
through ignorance of health care resources
and because they have trouble reading and
understanding the relevant information
(warnings, dosage, contraindications, etc.).

For society
Since literacy is an essential tool for individuals and
states to be competitive in the new global knowledge
economy, many positions remain vacant for lack of
personnel adequately trained to hold them;
The higher the proportion of adults with low literacy
proficiency is, the slower the overall long-term GDP
growth rate is;
The difficulty understanding societal issues lowers the
level of community involvement and civic participation.
Without the basic tools necessary for achieving their
goals, individuals without an adequate level of literacy
cannot be involved fully and on a completely equal
basis in social and political discourse.

Effects of illiteracy
The biggest effect of illiteracy in India is
poverty. Poverty also happens to be the
single biggest cause of illiteracy in India
and a precursor to all other effects.
The thing about illiteracy in India and its
effects is that they all compound together
to form a burden that is passed on from
generation to generation and if history is
any indication, it is one that has been
increasing with each generational shift
and with each year added to the calendar.

The past of illiteracy in India

Literacy in India grew very slowly until independence in 1947. An
acceleration in the rate of literacy growth occurred in the 1991
2001 period.
Prior to the British era, education in Indian commenced under the
supervision of a guru in traditional schools called gurukuls. The
gurukuls were supported by public donation and were one of the
earliest forms of public school offices. However these Gurukuls
catered only to the Upper castes males of the Indian society and
the overwhelming masses were denied any formal education. In
the colonial era, the gurukul system began to decline as the
system promoted by the British began to gradually take over.
Between 188182 and 194647, the number of English primary
schools grew from 82,916 to 134,866 and the number of
students in English Schools grew from 2,061,541 to 10,525,943.
Literacy rates in accordance to British in India rose from 3.2 per
cent in 1881 to 7.2 per cent in 1931 and 12.2 per cent in 1947.

 Total enrolment at the primary level has

increased from 19,200,000 in 195051 to
109,800,000 in 200102.The number of high
schools in 200001 was higher than the number
of primary schools at the time of independence.
In 1944, the Government of British India
presented a plan, called the Sergeant Scheme for
the educational reconstruction of India, with a
goal of producing 100% literacy in the country
within 40 years, i.e. by 1984.[38] Although the
40-year time-frame was derided at the time by
leaders of the Indian independence movement as
being too long a period to achieve universal
literacy, India had only just crossed the 74% level
by the 2011 census.