The Muslim community in India has the lowest share of graduates compared with other communities and just half the share of the nationwide average of under 6%. The Jains continue to be the most educationally advanced community with over a quarter of its members qualified as graduate or above. The share of technical diploma holders is the highest among Christians at 2.2%, again continuing a previous trend, with Sikhs following at 0.8%.
A heartening feature is that the most educationally deprived communities like Muslims and Buddhist are surging forward with shares increasing at a faster pace than other communities when compared to a decade earlier.
These details emerge from the latest release of Census 2011 data on educational levels across religious communities. The Census office is in the process of releasing such specific data over 5 years after the headcount took place. While illiteracy has declined and educational levels at primary or secondary level have risen rapidly across all communities, at the higher levels the dead weight of the past still casts a shadow. Those of college-going age were in primary school in the early to mid-90s and enrolment in schools was deficient, especially among Muslims. This historic deprivation is reflected in the current lag in higher education participation levels.
But even the overall share of graduates continues to be abysmally low at 6%, while the technical education level at just 0.6% is appalling. Most advanced countries have a graduate share of 30-50% accompanied by a high share of technical personnel.
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