ARTICLE
RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN THE LITERACY RATE, DECISION MAKING AND WORKING STATUS OF WOMEN IN
INDIA: A STUDY BASED ON THE NFHS DATA 2019-2020
Sreelakshmi Sudhakaran,
2nd Year B.Ed Social Science
(2022-2024)
St. Joseph College of Teacher Education for Women,
Ernakulam
sreelakshmisudhakaran311@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Talking about the rights of women is an easy task and
ensuring them all the rights they are in need of is a painful work. The
recently published National Family Health Survey 2019-2020 (NFHS 5.0) gives a
detailed analysis on the life of women in India. According to the latest sex
ratio data, there are 1020 females for every 1000 males in India. The same NFHS
2019-2020 data shows some kind of a shocking trends that the various Indian
states do face. The female literacy rate on an average is 70.3% for India and
the work participation rate of females were 23.5% according to the ILO
estimates. There is a huge gap between the literacy rates and the working
population of females. Even though attaining good secondary, higher secondary
or a university education does not ensure enough participation of these women
in the economic sphere. The All-India Survey on Higher Education 2019-2020
shows 19.6 million boys and 18.9 million girls got enrolled in higher
education. In this, females constitute 49% of the total enrollment. The data on
Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in 2019-2020 was 26.9 for males and 27.3 for
females. There exists a huge gap between the literacy rate of women and their
working and earning status.
The NFHS data of 2019-2020 shows that Indian women do
have a key role in certain decision-making processes related to them and their
family. Probably these women attained these qualities through good educational
background. But we are not totally aware of the kind of problems upon which she
takes a decision. The number of women who worked for the past 12 months and who
were paid in cash were very few in numbers in almost all the Indian states, be
it urban or rural. In economics we term all the activities done as a help or as
a token of love by any one is termed as non-economic activities especially the
work done by our mothers and the other female counterparts out of love been
called non-economic activities. This term has got such a wide popularity among
women that most of them are much pleased to be domesticated by love and less
pleased to be called economic agents who can earn enough to stand for their
own. So, the relationship between the literacy rate of women their decision-making
capacity and their working status is a puzzle for most of the India states to
solve that, trying to solve this itself makes it more and more complicated. In
total the NFHS data of 2019-2020 shows an improvement in the life of women in
India as we are marching towards a more independent society in every sense.
Economically speaking it’s a raw fact that most of the women has not attained
economic independence and we have to go a long way to ensure a swift and
sustainable economic backup and stability for Indian women.
KEY WORDS: Literacy Rate, Decision Making, Working
Status, Women Empowerment
INTRODUCTION
As we are marching towards development the percentage
increase in the number of literate women is a good sign of hope to ensure a
swift and sustainable growth pattern. This level of literacy among women has
not made them economically independent, economic independence is a far-away
dream for almost all the women in India. Once we believed that educating women
can ensure self-reliance and economic stability in the lives of women who are
almost half of the total demography of India. High educational qualifications
or literacy rates failed to ensure economic stability in the lives of women in
India. Many of them failed to earn a penny for themselves. Does this mean that
the economic freedom that these women are in need of is being hampered by
certain social norms which are been placed by the conventional social setup. Statistical
evidences could justify the economic environment, but sometimes even having
these numerical evidences or data can’t reveal or define the actual trend in various
areas of the economy. Such kind of a relationship do exist between the literacy
rates and the work participation rates or economic earnings of women in India.
This is a real time puzzle to solve. Below given is the percentage of literacy
rates among women in India for the past census years.
Table 1.1: Female literacy rates (%) in India.
|
Year |
female literacy (%) |
|
1901 |
0.6 |
|
1911 |
1 |
|
1921 |
1.8 |
|
1931 |
2.9 |
|
1941 |
7.3 |
|
1951 |
8.86 |
|
1961 |
15.35 |
|
1971 |
21.97 |
|
1981 |
29.76 |
|
1991 |
39.29 |
|
2001 |
53.67 |
|
2011 |
65.46 |
|
2021 |
70.3 |
The table 1.1 shows how there occurred a drastic
change in the literacy rates among the females in India. From 0.6% in 1901 to
70.3% in 2021. As the Indian society became more and more liberal in their
ideologies or rather were forced to be in tune with the new social system, they
promoted female education. We took decades to achieve independence from the
hands of British rule, the same decades were also striving to bring women in to
the forefront of the society. Even though economic independence is a dream for
many it’s no longer an unattainable one for them.
The Gap between the male-female Literacy rates is also
an area of concern as it is showing an increasing trend. This is a real problem
to be solved if not given a proper attention or policy action can definitely
break the equality that we are building in our society.
Figure 1.1: Female literacy rates (%) in India.
(Source: Census data)
The figure 1.1 shows the increasing trend in the
female literacy rates over these years. Literate women do have a space of her
own in most of the families and she also takes part in the decision-making
process related to her and her family. Education, Decision making and economic
earnings are the three main factors that contributes much towards women
empowerment. In a developing economy like India, it’s very difficult to
decipher the relationship between these elements. We do expect that education would
increase the economic stability and independence of women, there are situations
when women surrender their earnings to the male heads of their family. Even
though numerical evidences do not talk much about it, testimonial do. The
National Family Health Survey (NFHS 5) 2019-2020 shows a puzzling trend in these
indicators among the Indian women. The percentage of women who had made an
economic earning during the last 12 months were very much low when compared to
the national level female literacy rates.
Educating women is said to be as educating the society,
but this same societal concerns is a huddle in the path of development in
almost all of the developing nations and emerging economies. The socio-economic
standards of every nation could be known by the kind of exposure and economic
freedom women do enjoy in their society. Once no opportunities are taken away
from them, they can equally contribute to the economic needs of their family
along with their male counterparts. The demands and desires of women could only
be ensured in a full-fledged manner by ensuring that they are economically productive
enough. The 2019-2020 female work participation rates were 22.8%, which has
definitely shown an increasing trend when compared to the year 2018-2019. The
pandemic had a worse impact on the working population and especially on the
women workforce. But till the time they were able to be a great backup to the
“breadwinners” of their family. Every economy should have a cushy effect to set
a backup for every downfall, same is the case of every household which should
have another earning person to relay upon at times of a financial crunch or any
other needs. These highly educated or less educated women can be a helping hand
to the household economies at times. As ‘Economics’ itself is ‘Household
Management’ and the whole economy could only function well when this household
economy shows a sustainable growth pattern.
OBJECTIVES
1.
To
find the correlation between literacy rates of females, Decision making and
their earning status.
METHODOLOGY
The study is purely based on secondary data sources
which includes published articles and reports of the central government. NFHS
2019-2020 is the secondary data source from which data was collected.
ABOUT NATIONAL FAMILY HEALTH SURVEY
The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2019-2020
reveals a lot of prevailing trends in our Indian society, especially about the
women in India. It was in 1992-1993 that the first NFHS data was published by
the Government of India. The second NFHS report was published in 1998-1999 and
the third and the fourth one in 2005-2006 and 2015-2016 respectively.
Representative samples from the Indian family households were taken for the
study. The NFHS data helps in checking out India’s improvements in achieving the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) that we should meet by 2030. Each NFHS do
have two common objectives:
1.
To
provide Health and Family related data to the Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare and to other institutions and agencies to formulate the program to be implemented
and the policies to be formulated according to the need of the time.
2.
Information
regarding the Health and Family Welfare status of the Indian households be
published.
International Institute of Population Science (IIPS),
Mumbai is the institute to which the duty of technical and other support need
by the household survey is been vested upon by the Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare (MOHFW). Each NFHS publication contains details on:
·
National
and state fact sheet
·
District
fact sheet
·
National
and state report
NFHS 2019-2020
The first and second phase of the NFHS data includes some
new areas of study, which were initiated in the 2020 NFHS data including access
to toilet facilities, bathing practice during menstruation etc. Women
empowerment being the buzzing word of the world today does have a great
importance in deciding the growth of every nation. While some indicators
related to women empowerment have increased in numbers. Problems like sexual
and domestic violence faced by the Indian women is been showing an increasing
trend. This is a real shame and a great huddle in the path of the idea of
holistic development. The data shows that women have outnumbered men, but there
is a huge way to walk in front of us to make sure that there exists equality in
some quint essential indicators.
LITERACY RATES
Women are nearly half of the population of India and
it varies according to various states. The average literacy rates of Indian
women in 2015-2016 NFHS data was 68%. The 2019-2020 NFHS data shows the
national female literacy rate as 71.5 %. The literacy rates of women in each
state of India for the year 2015-2016 is not available in the NFHS document. For
different states the female literacy rates are also different according to the
socio-economic conditions prevailing there. Kerala is the state that shows the
highest rates of female literacy which was 98.3% in 2019-2020. The sex ratio of
Kerala is also one of the highest in India. These all shows that Kerala is a
place where women do have a space of their own in matters concerning them.
94.4% is the literacy rate of women in Mizoram, which stands in the second
position for the year 2019-2020. Bihar is the state with the lowest percentage
of women being literate, its only 57.8%. This is even below the national
average for the year. All the south Indian states have shown a good level of
literacy rates among women, all of them have more than 65% of women of their
population being literate.
DECISION MAKING
Decision making power is the real power that every
human being should possess to lead a life with dignity and self-respect. The NFHS
data shows the details regarding the decision-making power of women in
different states of India. The national average in decision making power of
women were 88.7% for the year 2019-2020 and it was 84% for the year 2015-2016. The
decisions about health care for herself, making major household purchases and
visit to her family or relatives were looked upon to find the percentage of
women who are capable enough for decision making. Women of Nagaland stood in
the first position for the year 2019-2020 with 99.2% of them who were able to
make decisions of their own related to her family and health needs. It was
97.4% for Nagaland in the year 2015-2016. 98.8% and 96% of the Mizoram women
were engaged in the decision-making process for the years 2019-2020 and
2015-2016 respectively. For Kerala 94.1% of women in 2019-2020 and 92.1% in
2015-2016 were involved in the decision-making process. Jammu and Kashmir women
showed the lowest percentage of women involved in decision-making process with
81.6% in 2019-2020, it was 84% for the year 2015-2016. It shows that Jammu and
Kashmir showed a decrease of 2.7% percent decrease in between these 4 years.
Bihar and Haryana showed a drastic increase in the number of women who were
brave enough to make their own decisions in between these 4 years of time gap.
Sikkim was the state which showed a decrease of 5.6% of women being involved in
the process of decision-making in between the gap of NFHS-4 and NFHS-5. For
Sikkim it was 89.7% in 2019-2020 and it was 95.3% in 2015-2016. It shows a
sharp decrease in the power of women to take decisions of their own.
While having a close look on the NFHS data of
2019-2020 regarding the decision-making power of the India women, its clearly
visible that in each and every Indian states more that 81% of the women are
keen in making decisions related to their life. For almost all the Indian
states it has shown a drastic change from the NFHS data for the year 2015-2016
to the year 2019-2020.
WORKING STATUS OF WOMEN
When compared to that of the decision-making power and
literacy rates of women in India, the participation of women in economic
activities and their earnings in cash are very low. Such a trend is clearly
visible from the NFHS data. The national average of women who worked in the
last 12 months and were paid in cash were 25.4% for the year 2019-2020 and for
the year 2015-2016 it was 24.6. When compared to the literacy rates the earning
status of women are too low. Telangana showed the highest percentage of women
who worked in the last 12 months and who were paid in cash. They accounted
45.1% for the year 2019-2020, and it was 44.7% for 2015-2016. Manipur showed
42.1%, Andhra Pradesh- 42.1%, Tamil Nadu- 40.8% of women who earned money
during the last one year (2019-2020). Kerala with the largest number of
literate women 98.3% only has 25.8% of them who worked and earned in cash
during the last one year. This leaves a question behind, why are the rest of
the women away from the job market. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh with 12.6% and 15.5%
respectively showed the lowest percentage of women who are engaged in an
economic activity.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE LITERACY RATES, DECISION
MAKING CAPACITY AND ERANING STATUS OF WOMEN IN INDIA
We usually do have a misconception that all educated
women are empowered enough to earn and make decisions of her own. This is not the
condition of Indian women in most of the times. There are even situations when
the earning women do surrender their income to their male counterparts! The
NFHS data shows that there are some huddles in the path of every Indian Women
to achieve anything she is in need of. Kerala is the state with the highest
percentage of educated females, but the same state does have only 25.8% of them
earning money via some economic activities. 94.1% of the women are taking part
in the decision-making process. Telangana is the state with the highest number
of females (45.1%) who had worked in the last 12 months and were paid in cash.
But only 66.6% of the females are literate in the state, 87.2% of the women
gets involves in the decision-making process in Telangana.
In 2019-2020 71.5% of females were literate, but only
25.4% of them were earning. There is a huge gap seen between the education
levels and the earning levels of Indian women. But decision-making process
includes much more females, 88.7% of them do become a part of it.
The
female literacy rates are increasing year by year in India. This progressive
trend can ensure a swift and sustainable development in our nation if these
females are to be employed in all kinds of productive activities. The 2019-2020
data shows that Kerala had the highest female literacy rates, 98.3%. Bihar was
the last in the list with only 57.8% of females being literate.
Decision
making capacity of Indian women in the year 2019-2020 in all of the Indian states
were above 80%. This is a good sign of women empowerment that almost all the
women are capable enough to make decisions of their own. 99.2% of women in
Nagaland were taking part in the decision-making process and were the first in
India. Women in Jammu and Kashmir were at the bottom position with 81.6% of
them getting involved in making decisions, but this is not a small percentage.
The
percentage of Women who worked
in the last 12 months (2019-020) and were paid in cash are very low in India.
The highest percentage was in Andhra Pradesh with 42.1% of women who had some
earnings. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh with 12.6% and 15.5% respectively had the
lowest number of earning women in India. Here the literacy rates of women are
57.8% for Bihar and 66.1% for Uttar Pradesh. Kerala with the highest female
literacy rates had only 25.8% of women earning an income. The case of Kerala is
really a puzzling one showing high literacy and very low earning status of
women.
The correlation between female
literacy rates and earning status of women in India is 0.266, it shows a
positive relation but only a low positive relationship between these variables.
The
Pearson correlation value between female literacy
rates and earning status of women in India is 0.614, it shows a positive
relation but only a low positive relationship between these variables.
0.097
is the Pearson’s correlation value between the variables Decision making power
of women and the Females earning status. It shows a very weak relationship
between these variables.
CONCLUSION
Women
are an integral part in developing an economy, especially in building up an
underdeveloped or developing economy into a sustainable and prosperous one.
India being a developing economy lacks a lot of favourable factors that are
essential for the upliftment of the women. The NFHS data 2019-2020 shows that not
all educated women do work and earn and not all women who become a part in the
household family decision making process are educated. The conventional social
norms and ideas have played a key role in making women economically dependent
in every way. Even though liberal ways of thinking are getting converted to
practical ones, it has not solved all the problems that women do face. Everyone
can improve in their life only when they are really committed to do it for
themselves. The reality is that Indian women are so obsessed to be supressed
that they burry the harsh realities among themselves. The cases of domestic
violence are increasing in India as we claim to ourselves that we are liberal
enough to give freedom to women in every sense. Freedom is not granted, instead
it’s borne with us. The NFHS 2019-2020 shows a very puzzling data. Literacy
rates are going up among females but their earning status is more or less
stagnant. It’s high time that we all should revisit the way we all treat women.
And women should come out of the conventional way of living to find stability
in every sphere of life.
REFERENCES
1.
A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN WOMEN WORK
PARTICIPATION AND LITERACY RATE IN INDIA, Biplab Tripathy & Subhechya Raha.
December 2019.
2.
ALL INDIA SURVEY ON HIGHER EDUCATION
2019-2020, Published by the ministry of education, Depatment of Higher
Education, New Delhi, Government of India
3.
Gender Differentials in Sex ratio,
Literacy rate and Work Participation rate: Trends, Issues and Concerns Bigi
Thomas1 and Sadhana Adhikary. International Journal of Social and Economic
Research Vol. 4, Issue 2, April-June 2014 pp. 77-83 DOI: 10.5958/2249-6270.2014.00486.3
4.
Ghai, Surbhi Working Paper, The anomaly of
women's work and education in India Working Paper, No. 368 Provided in
Cooperation with: Indian Council for Research on International Economic
Relations (ICRIER)
7.
National Family 2019-20 Health Survey
(NFHS-5),2019-2020. Key Indicators 22 STATES/UTs FROM PHASE - I, Government of
India Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
8.
National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5)
2019-21, COMPENDIUM OF FACT SHEETS INDIA AND 14 STATES/UTs (Phase-11),
Government of India Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
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