More than half of the total disabled population in India are now literate, new numbers released from Census 2011 show. The literacy rate among the disabled has increased from 49.3 per cent in 2001 to 54.5 per cent in 2011. However, this is significantly lower than the overall literacy level of India which stands at 74 per cent.
Both rural and urban areas saw an increase of around four percentage points in literacy rate of the disabled.
Wider in rural areas
Among the urban disabled, 68 per cent are literate while the number stands at 49 per cent for disabled in the rural areas.
The difference between literacy rate of males and females is wider in rural areas — 72 per cent of disabled males and 61 per cent of disabled females in urban areas are literate, a difference of nine percentage points.
But in rural areas, the difference stands at 20 percentage points, as 58 per cent of disabled males and only 38 per cent of disabled females are literate.