J&K most illiterate among northern states, census of India has found

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Jan 16: Jammu and Kashmir is least literate among northern states including the newly carved out Uttarakhand, reveals the latest census report.

Though the state’s literate population has been pegged at more than 68 percent of the total 1.25 crore persons – with a decadal growth of 13 percent - it is far behind other northern states like Himachal Pradesh (83.78 percent), Punjab (76.68 percent) Haryana (76.64 percent), Delhi (86.34 percent) and newly created Uttarakhand (79.63 percent). Jammu and Kashmir’s literate population was recorded at 55.50 percent in 2001 census.

According to the census data, more people in JK are leaving farms and villages to settle in towns and cities. Around 30 percent of over 1.25 crore state population has been recorded to be living in urban JK, the report says.

The share of urban population in the state has gone up to 27.21 percent and the people living in rural areas constitute 72.79 percent of total populace. He said the urban population has shown steady growth of more than 6 percent in past three decades as figures in 1981 stood at 21.05 percent. Data says that the gap between the urban and the rural population is narrowing and the two may cut across each other in coming few decades.

These figures have been revealed by recent Census carried out by the Union Government. As per 2011 census, Jammu and Kashmir has over 72.45 lakh (78.26 percent) literate persons including 43.70 lakh males and 28.74 lakh females. More literate population (48.98 lakh) is living in rural JK compared to 23.47 lakh in urban areas of the state.

The ratio of rural to urban literacy rate is 64.97%: 78.19%. The winter capital tops in the literacy rate at 83.98 % followed by Samba at  81.08%, while Ramban and Bandipora districts have the lowest literacy rate in the State.