NEW DELHI: For the third year in a row, average literacy rate of females aged between 15 and 49 years has shown an overall increase — 84.8% in 2016, 85.3% in 2017 and 87% in 2018.
According to the Sample Registration System survey for the year 2018, the percentage of women completing primary education was same as 2017 at 13.9% but there was a slight improvement in the percentage of those completed schooling.
In 2018, 12.5% females were found to have completed school education, up from 12% from the previous year.
Kerala once again led the country with a female literacy rate of 99.5%. An analysis of statistics of previous years shows that Kerala has beaten its own record of 99.3% in 2017 and 99.2 % in 2016. Himachal Pradesh is second with 98.8% literacy rate, the same percentage it recorded in 2017. Tamil Nadu is third in the list with 96.8 %, up from 96.2% in 2017.
Bihar, Jharkhand and Rajasthan were the states with worst female literacy rate in 2018 but both states registered better literacy rate as compared to previous years.
Bihar reduced illiteracy from 28.3% in 2016, to 26.3% in 2017, to 23.5% in 2018. It was from 25% in 2016, to 24.9% in 2017 to 22.6% in 2018 in Jharkhand. In the case of Rajasthan, it was 23.5% in 2016, 22.5% in 2017 and 20% in 2018.
The levels of literacy also reflected in the fertility pattern of women in the country, according to the data compiled by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.
The overall fertility rate of females among the unlettered was 3%, among those who are literate but without any formal education the fertility rate was 2.5%, among those who studied up to middle school it is 2.5, 1.8% in those who have finished their schools, and 1.7% among graduates.
In Bihar, the fertility rate among its literate female population was as high as 3%, Uttar Pradesh came a close second with a fertility rate of 2.9% among its literate female population.