Literacy and Sex Ratio

Prerequisites

• Census 2011 at a Glance: headline numbers and provisional vs final figures
• Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes Population: tribal demography explains much of the sex ratio story
• Education and Human Resource Development: literacy as part of human development

The Hook: A State That Counts Its Daughters

Why it matters: literacy and sex ratio are the two most-asked Census numbers in Prelims. In Mains, the contrast between a high sex ratio and a large literacy gender gap makes a strong, balanced answer.

Definitions (as used by the Census)

For Chhattisgarh: \( \frac{1{,}27{,}12{,}303}{1{,}28{,}32{,}895} \times 1000 \approx 991 \).

Literacy (Census 2011)

The literacy map

• Highest in the urban–industrial centre: Durg (Bhilai), Raipur, and nearby plains districts. Cities, industry, the Bhilai Steel Plant’s schools and older educational institutions all help.
• Lowest in the southern tribal districts: Bijapur, Narayanpur, Dantewada. Sparse settlement, long distances to school, language barriers (Gondi, Halbi rather than Hindi as home language) and Left-Wing Extremism disrupting schooling all hold literacy down.
• Rural–urban gap: urban literacy (about 84%) is far above rural literacy (about 66%).
• Gender gap: the female shortfall is largest in rural and tribal areas.

Why literacy lags (Mains material)

1. Geography: scattered hamlets in hills and forests make schools hard to reach.
2. Language: many tribal children grow up speaking Gondi, Halbi, Kurukh or Sadri, while schooling is in Hindi.
3. Poverty and work: children help with farm work, forest produce collection and seasonal migration.
4. Conflict: in parts of Bastar, Left-Wing Extremism has damaged schools and kept teachers away.
5. Gender norms and early marriage reduce girls’ schooling, widening the gap.

Responses to quote: residential schools and ashram schools for tribal children, mother-tongue-based early education in tribal languages, the national adult literacy programme ULLAS – Nav Bharat Saksharta Karyakram (2022–27), and free bicycles for girls to reach secondary school (the Saraswati Cycle Yojana, a long-running state scheme).

Sex Ratio (Census 2011)

The sex ratio map

• Several districts recorded more than 1,000 females per 1,000 males in 2011, especially in the Bastar region and in plains districts such as Rajnandgaon and Dhamtari.
• The lowest ratios are in industrial and mining districts such as Korba (about 970), where male workers migrate in for jobs.
• Urban areas have a lower sex ratio than rural areas, again because men migrate to cities and industrial towns for work.
• The ST population has a sex ratio above 1,000, higher than the state average.

Why the sex ratio is high (Mains material)

1. Tribal social norms: less son preference, women’s visible economic role, and customs such as bride price rather than dowry in many communities.
2. Women’s work: women’s labour in paddy fields and forest-produce collection is valued.
3. Male out-migration: men leaving for seasonal or industrial work raises the ratio in villages (and lowers it in industrial towns).
4. Weaker spread of sex-selective technology in remote areas.

Why the falling child sex ratio is a warning

• A falling child sex ratio usually signals sex-selective abortion and neglect of girl children spreading with urbanisation, small-family norms and access to ultrasound.
• The tool against it is the PCPNDT Act, 1994 (Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques), along with campaigns such as Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (2015).
• For Chhattisgarh, the task is to protect a good ratio before it erodes the way it has in more urbanised states.

Memory Tricks

Don’t Confuse

Common Mistakes

Practice

These are original practice questions written in CGPSC style. They are not previous-year questions.

Level 1: Foundation

1. In the Census, a person is literate if he or she is aged ________ or above and can read and write with understanding in any language.
2. Chhattisgarh’s sex ratio in Census 2011 was ________ and its child sex ratio was ________.
3. The district of Chhattisgarh with the lowest literacy rate in Census 2011 was ________.

Level 2: Prelims MCQs

Q1. Consider the following statements about Chhattisgarh as per Census 2011:

1. Its sex ratio was higher than India’s.
2. Its child sex ratio was higher than in Census 2001.
3. Its literacy rate was lower than India’s.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 and 2 only (b) 1 and 3 only (c) 2 and 3 only (d) 1, 2 and 3

Q2. Match List-I (Indicator, Census 2011) with List-II (Value for Chhattisgarh):

(a) A-2, B-4, C-3, D-1 (b) A-4, B-2, C-1, D-3 (c) A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3 (d) A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3

Q3. Which pair of districts had the highest and the lowest literacy rate respectively in Chhattisgarh in Census 2011?

(a) Raipur and Narayanpur (b) Durg and Bijapur (c) Bilaspur and Dantewada (d) Durg and Narayanpur

Q4. As per Census 2011, which of the following states had a higher sex ratio than Chhattisgarh?

1. Kerala
2. Tamil Nadu
3. Andhra Pradesh (undivided)
4. Meghalaya

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1 only (b) 1 and 2 only (c) 1, 2 and 3 only (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

Q5. In Census 2011, the male and female populations of Chhattisgarh were about 1,28,32,895 and 1,27,12,303. The sex ratio is closest to:

(a) 943 (b) 969 (c) 991 (d) 1,009

Level 3: Mains Answer Writing

Q1. Chhattisgarh has a high sex ratio but a low female literacy rate. Explain this paradox. (150–200 words)

Q2. What does the decline in the child sex ratio of Chhattisgarh between 2001 and 2011 indicate? (60 words)

Quick Revision Table

Key Takeaways

What’s Next

• Quick Revision: Population and Census: every number of this chapter on one page
• Welfare Programmes: schemes for women, children and education
• Social Aspects of Chhattisgarh: gender and society in the state for GS-IV
• Economy and Schemes of Chhattisgarh: state schemes for education and women