EDUCATING THE BACKBONE OF INDIA’S FUTURE
‘A person aged 7 and above who can both, read and write with understanding in any language is considered literate’. This is the commonly used definition when we talk about literacy. When India became independent in 1947, the literacy rate was very low. The earliest figures from the year 1951 show that the literacy rate was only 16.67%. Fast forward to 1991 it was 52.10%, which is still quite low as only half of the population was literate. The last census was carried out in 2011, according to which India's literacy rate was 74.4%, with 82.14% male literacy rate and 65.46% female literacy rate. The latest survey carried out by the National Statistical Commission in 2017-2018 shows that literacy rate has increased to 77.7%. Since Independence, India's literacy rate has increased six times. But the increase over the years has been very sluggish. The Global Literacy Index for people aged above 15 years is 86.3% which is much higher than our national literacy rate. The Unit