Educating Women and the Impact on Literacy

Surrey based Bikkar Singh Lalli writes "India Must Educate Women To Reduce Population And Raise Healthy Children". Some interesting points from the article:

• According to the latest census data, the adult literacy level in India, has reached 74 percent, an increase of 9 percent from the last census.
  
• However, there are still about 260 million illiterate adults in India compared to 70 million in China.
• Fifty percent of world’s “hungry” are living in India.
  
• It is a matter of national shame that, in spite of over 9 percent annual growth in GDP, every fourth Indian is hungry, every third Indian women is anaemic and every third child is underweight and stunted.
• The degree to which child marriage is practised in India is more than double the figure for Pakistan. A 2011 date sheet called “World’s Women and Girls”, released by Washington based Population Reference Bureau, shows that 47 per cent of women between the age of 20 and 24 were married by 18. This is higher than the average for South Central Asia (45%). Even in progressive states like Gujarat and Maharashtra the parents marry off their daughters at an early age.
• According to a special edition of UNICEF’s State of the world Children, issued in Nov. 2010, while globally, annual number of deaths of children under five has fallen from around 12,5 million in 1990 to an estimated 8.8 million in 2008, the mortality rates in India remain unacceptably high, with 5,0000 children dying every day due to preventable causes.
• According to the report, the only good news for India is that fewer children under five are dying as the national mortality rate has fallen from 117 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 72 in 2007.
  
• The Hindu, May 11: “Delhi has 50, 000 street children- the study done between July 12 and August 28, 2010 – has revealed that one out of every five of the street children was involved in rag picking-this was followed bystreet vending (15.18 per cent), begging (15 per cent). Thirty nine of the street children slept in slums, 46 six per cent in open or public places, and only four per cent slept in shelters provided by non-governmental organizations. Nearly 22 per cent of those surveyed said that they used drugs”.

Mr. Lalli's conclusion:

The best long term solution to tackle the horror of high mother and child mortality is not found in hospitals, but in schools. Thus, India must start vigorously to empower girls with education. An educated girl delays marriage and think of a smaller and planned family.

Amen!