Today i.e on September 8, the world will be seen celebrating the 50 th International Literacy Day. The theme for this year is “Reading the Past, Writing the Future”. The day came into existence when the UNESCO proclaimed September 8 as the International Literacy Day back in the year 1966.
The day was celebrated as a way to promote literacy among people and actively mobilise the international community in such a manner that education is seen as means of empowering a person.
A two-day conference will be held as a part of the celebration at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.The conference will be organised on September 8 th and September 9 th .
Also Read : UNESCO Report- India Half a Century Behind in Achieving 2030 Educational Goals
Indian Literacy Stats:
Talking about our country, India, it has been found that 22% of the total people in India are illiterate. Also, Jains were found to be the most literate people as compared to other religious communities as about 86.73 percent of them as literate and only 13.57 percent as illiterate.
The highest illiteracy was seen in Muslims i.e 42.72 per cent, after that comes the Hindus at 36.40 per cent.
Illiteracy percentage of other religious communities is as follows:
- Sikhs- 32.49
- Buddhists- 28.17
- Christians- 25.66
When it comes to gender, Males literacy rate is higher than female literacy rate with 61.6 percent men have studied upto graduation in comparison to the 38.4 percent women.
Also, its is estimated that India is half a century late in achieving its education goal for 2030, i.e India will be able to achieve its goal till the year 2085.
While comparing states, the most literate state is Kerala with a literacy rate of 93.91 percent. The states with the lowest literacy rate are Bihar and Telangana with a literacy rate of only 63.82 percent and 66.50 percent.