Background information about the students in the villages in South India of young, underprivileged village girls between the ages of 14-21years
India, with a population of more than 1000 million in 2001, is the world’s second most populous country. From that 1000 million people, less than half of that are women. (the sex ratio is 933 females per 1,000 males). According to research on this subject, systematic gender discrimination is the root-cause of this. Around 245 million women in India cannot read or write, which makes India have the largest number of illiterate women in the world. Most of these illiterate women live in rural areas.
For the young women in the villages around Auroville, in Tamil Nadu, the most important issues are:
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Education and illiteracy
Education and illiteracy
Eradication of female illiteracy has been one of the major concerns of the government of India since independence. And although substantial progress has been achieved since India won its independence in 1947, when an 8 % of females were literate, to 54% in 2004 the gains have not been rapid enough to keep pace with population growth: there were 16 million more illiterate females in 1991 than in 1981. India has the largest population of non-school-going working girls.
While India’s constitution guarantees free primary school education for both boys and girls up to age 14, and this goal has been repeatedly reconfirmed, primary education in India is not universal. This goal has been repeatedly reconfirmed, but primary education in India is not universal. Overall, the literacy rate for women was 54.16% versus 75.85 % for men and versus 65.38 % as national average, according to the census report 2001.
