Spatial Pattern of Literacy in Manipur

By Luckyson R. Panmei

Literacy is one of the important demographic elements, which is a good measure of human progress towards modernisation. It is an important indicator of the socioeconomic development of an area. The literacy rate of Manipur has increased tremendously in the post-independent era. The provisional census data of 2011 shows the literacy rate of the state (79.85%) much above the national average (74.04%). However, the spatial pattern of literacy in the state varies from region to region. The present paper is an attempt to study the spatial pattern of the literacy levels prevailing among various sections of the total population in Manipur. It also discusses the male-female differentials and urban-rural differentials literacy rate of the state from 1951 to 2011. It is found that the overall literacy rate of the state has been increasing, while, the literate male population is higher than the literate female population. One important aspect of studying the urban-rural differentials in literacy rate of the state is that, the urban area are mostly concentrated in the valley area, except some small urban areas and a census town in the hill districts. The literacy rate of the urban areas is higher than the rural areas. Less urban-rural differentials in literacy is the characteristic of areas marked by relatively high degree of urbanisation, educational facilities, medical facilities, transport accessibilities, etc.

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