Lessons in literacy Punjab needs to learn

Contribution of education in social and economic transformation is immense and multidimensional. Educational build-up generates plethora of benefits not only directly to the education acquirer but to society at large through its unending chain of externality. Both the market and non-market sectors reap educational dividends, of short term and long-term variety, which enhances wellbeing of individuals, households and society.

Literacy has generally been accepted to measure, compare and contrast the educational progress of any society. Though sometimes it is considered as a crude and rudimentary yardstick of educational attainments, yet literacy throws much light upon educational happenings in a society. For the purpose of census, a person aged seven and above, who can both read and write with understanding in any language, is treated as literate. A person, who can only read but cannot write, is not literate. Literacy, being the direct product of formal education systems emanates from growth and expansion of basic education in any politico-administrative set up.

Slippage in national context
Punjab has not shown the desired vigour and sustained commitment in translating its economic advantage into better quality human resources. For example, as per Census 2001, on the basis of overall-literacy (combined males and females) wise ranking of all 35 states and Union Territories of the country, Punjab occupied 15th position from above. But ironically and most notably, the rank of the state on the literacy front has slipped to the 21st position as per Census 2011. Further, in the same context and reference year, in male literacy the rank of the state was 24th. It was 18th in female literacy. Similarly, the under-performance of the state also emerges from the DISE report 2011-12, according to which, the state despite being scoring better on three components of Educational Development Index (EDI) — namely Access, Infrastructure and Teachers, has performed extremely poor on its fourth but very crucial component, namely, Educational Outcomes, where it occupies 32nd and 35th rank from above, respectively, for primary and upper primary levels of schooling. Literacy progress in Punjab by and large closely resembles and hovers around national averages and pattern. The literacy rate of Punjab was a bit lower to that of the national average as per the 1971 and 1981 censuses.  But, the state marginally crossed national averages during the 1991 Census and onwards. The national literacy rate rose from 34.45 per cent to 74.04 per cent and in case of Punjab from 33.67 per cent to 76.70 per cent; respectively, from 1971 to 2011. Punjab and India experienced a rise in literacy both in case of males and females. As expected, the respective gaps in males and females literacy rates narrowed over a period. But markedly, it happened more at the national level as the gap declined from 23.98 per cent to 16.68 per cent; whereas in Punjab it declined marginally from 14.48 per cent to 10.20 per cent, respectively, from 1971 to 2011. The state has yet to record its presence in states with better literacy.

Among the neighbouring states, as per Census 1971, the first after reorganisation of the state, Punjab was better placed in terms of rural literacy (27.60 per cent) than Haryana (21.72 per cent). Haryana had an edge over Punjab in urban literacy (51 per cent and 48.10 per cent, respectively). Female literacy in Haryana (9.24 per cent) was much lower than Punjab (19.58 per cent) during 1971, but it reached near Punjab as it rose to 60.01 per cent as against 66.47 per cent of Punjab during 2011. Himachal Pradesh maintained its edge over Punjab in all literacy categories more noticeably in case of rural literacy both for males and females.

Gender and spatial disparities
Progress in literacy, viewed in terms of different sections of society, presents a picture of wider gap and neglect. As per Census 2011, the literacy level among Scheduled Castes (64.8 per cent) was considerably lower than that of non-Scheduled Castes (82.07 per cent); pointing towards the gap of 17.26 per cent. The gaps were found to be slightly on the lower side for rural segments than their urban counterparts. However, the literacy rate was the highest in case of non-SC urban males (90.65 per cent) and lowest for SC rural females (58.39 per cent).  This shows that different sections of society stand at historically different stages of progress as far as literacy goes.

The inter-district picture shows considerable variation. During 2011, Mansa district stands at the bottom, with overall literacy rate of 62.8 per cent as compared to 85.4 per cent of Hoshiarpur; the district with highest level of overall literacy. As many as 10 districts (Moga, Ferozepur, Muktsar, Faridkot, Bathinda, Mansa, Patiala, Tarn Taran, Sangrur and Barnala) have an overall literacy rate lower than the state average of 76.7 per cent. Hoshiarpur occupies the top position in case of five literacy categories, namely, male literacy (89.9 per cent), female literacy (80.8 per cent), rural males (89.48 per cent), rural females (79.56 per cent) and urban females (85.48 per cent), but for urban males in which SAS Nagar tops at the literacy level of 92.28 per cent. Mansa remained at the bottom in both male and female literacy levels. By comparing and contrasting all the categories of literacy it emerges that urban males of SAS Nagar (92.28 per cent) formed the most literate stock of state with rural females of Mansa (52.47 per cent) the least. The state has to tread a long journey in order to bridge inter-location and inter-gender literacy gaps.

The level of male literacy in the state rose from 40.38 per cent to 81.50 per cent and for females from 25.90 per cent to 71.30 per cent, between the period of 1971 and 2011. The temporal pattern of growth shows that the highest improvement of literacy happened between 1981 and 1991. During this decade, the additions for various literacy categories on per cent basis points were 17.65 in case of persons' literacy, 18.50 males' literacy and 16.72 females' literacy. This has also been true in case of rural and urban literacy; both for males and females. The decadal additions were found to be on a much lower side during all other decades but for the said decade.
The progress of literacy in the state has not only been tardy but is iniquitous across locations, sexes, regions, districts, weaker versus other sections, etc.  Many survey-based studies point towards a lower level of literacy among small-size holders, agricultural labourers; rural workers, weaker sections, casual and daily workers.
Female literacy, particularly in rural areas and more so among weaker sections, has not progressed at a desired pace which resulted in lower general literacy. Gender gaps in literacy though narrowed are on a higher side when analysed over a large spectrum comprising urban males of educationally advanced districts with rural females of educationally under-achieving districts. The districts with a lower level of literacy at the time of reorganisation of states continuously remained at a lower level because of less improvement in rural and female literacy.

The constrained educational progress has not allowed the state to make any appreciable dent as far as the burgeoning number of illiterates is concerned. For example, the total population of the state was 277.04 lakh as per Population Census 2011. The share of child population (0-6 years) in total was 10.62 per cent; means thereby 247.63 lakh population falls in the age group of seven and above.

Of this, the number of literates was 189.89 lakh, with a literacy rate of 76.68 per cent. It implies that during 2011, the state had 57.74 lakh illiterate persons in the age group seven and above. Calculating in this manner, it emerged that the number of such illiterate persons was equivalent to 64.20 lakh during the Population Census 2001; and 70.44 lakh during the Population Census 1991. This implies that the net decline in the total number of illiterates was just 6.46 lakh during 2011, as compared to 2001. It was 6.24 lakh during 2001 over 1991.

Chaotic policy 
The dwindled state interest, because of a multitude of factors, has given serious jolt to educational effectiveness of directly government controlled and supported educational institutions.
The under-governance of educational sector has badly shaken the public interest in usefulness of government institutions for their wards. State withdrawal and apathy have crippled the functioning of government institutions, which ultimately turned out to be institutions of those who cannot afford non-state institutions. The withdrawal of wards by the influential sections from public institutions in favour of non-state ones has ended all sort of pressure on the state system to improve educational governance.

The writer is Professor of Economics, Punjabi University, Patiala