1Research Coordinator, Cultural Research Institute, Backward Classes Welfare and Tribal Development DepartmentGovernment of West Bengal
2Deputy Director, Cultural Research Institute, Backward Classes Welfare and Tribal Development DepartmentGovernment of West Bengal
Online published on 2 September, 2019.
Education is one of the important needs of life. A low degree of literacy is an obstacle to economic growth. In view of the above, an attempt has been made to analyse the literacy trend of scheduled tribe communities of Meghalaya, and comparing the data over a decade (2001–2011). The difference between male and female has also been compared. A special emphasis has been given to the educational status of tribal women of Meghalaya. The present paper is based on secondary sources of data, mainly drawn from Census 2001 and 2011 of India and Meghalaya. Effective literacy rate was calculated based on literate people having age 7 years and above.
According to census 2011, tribal population in Meghalaya constitutes 2.4% of the total scheduled tribe population of India. Literacy rate of scheduled tribes in Meghalaya is 74.53% stands much above the national average. Overall literacy growth of scheduled tribe population in Meghalaya between 2001 and 2011 is 13.2%. Dimasa and Kachari communities have witnessed maximum growth. Whereas Pawi community has gone through a reduction over a decade. The male-female literacy gap is also significant. In 2001, it was 4.28% where in 2011 it has come down to 2%.
Focusing on female literacy status, which is still below the state average according to census 2011. The Man community witnessed the lowest literacy rate among female followed by Koch, Hajong, Rava, Mikir and Garo. The fact remains that a large number of tribal women might have missed educational opportunities at different stages and in order to empower them varieties of skill training programmes have to be designed and organised.
Literacy, India, Tribal, Meghalaya, Census data
