Poverty-stricken Indian women can attain literacy only by 2080: UNESCO

Literacy seems to still be a distant dream for young Indian women in poverty. Going by the present pace of development, India will take at least another 65 years to achieve female youth literacy. These startling facts are part of the latest Education For All Global Monitoring Report (GMR) which was released worldwide by the UNESCO last week.

Why will poverty-stricken Indian women achieve literacy only by 2080?
Highlighting the deep-rooted gender-bias in Indian society, the report said that the richest young women in India have already achieved universal literacy, but the poorest are projected to only do so around 2080, noting: “huge disparities within India point to a failure to target support adequately towards those who need it the most.”

What about projected literacy rates?
Only 51% Indian women above age 15 are able to read and write, thus eligible to be put in the literate category. This is against 75% Indian men in 2008, for which the data was available, states the report. The gap is narrowing, but at a slower pace, which can be seen from the projected literacy for women in 2015 being 61%, as against 81% of men. The total projected literacy rate is 71%.
It is projected that by 2015, 112 out of 161 countries will have achieved parity in primary education, but also that 12 countries will still have fewer than 9 girls enrolled in school for every 10 boys.

What impact has the global learning crisis had?
Insisting on gender sensitive curriculum for better inclusion, the report says that a global learning crisis is costing governments $129 billion a year.
“Post-2015 goals need to include a commitment to make sure the most disadvantaged groups achieve benchmarks set for goals. Failure to do so could mean that measurement of progress continues to mask the fact that the advantaged benefit the most,” the report added.

How does India compare to other developing nations?
India is placed at the bottom of three categories with Nepal, Bhutan, African and Middle East countries, which are still far from achieving 80% literacy rate by 2015, and are moving at a “slower pace or far away from the target.”