Literacy among muslim women in West Bengal, India

Muslim women that contribute approximately 12.16% of total population in West Bengal can not be neglected in any sphere of life. But their educational, social, economical and religious status remains far below the normal. Literacy is one of the most important indicators of educational status. An effort has been made to investigate the trends of literacy of Muslim women in West Bengal, India. Comparatively lower percentages of Muslim women literacy in West Bengal before 2001 and a little progress of Muslim women literacy in West Bengal after 2001 had been noticed. Though, the rate of literacy percentage increase for Muslim women became much higher than that for Muslim male in West Bengal and close to that of Muslims in India, the literacy percentage of Muslim women in West Bengal remained the lowest among all other persons in India and West Bengal, Muslim persons in India, Muslim male and female persons in West Bengal, and all other female persons in West Bengal for the period from 1965 to 2015 due to economic, social, institutional, religious and cultural, and awareness related causes. Higher literacy among Muslim women in the regions of medium Muslim population density and lower Muslim women literacy in the regions of very low and very high Muslim population density indicated the importance of mutual interactions of religions, cultures and social attitudes between Muslims and other communities in West Bengal.