NEW DELHI: Government on Monday told Parliament that the literacy rate among Muslims as well as the share of women from the community in the labour force had increased in recent years.
In a written reply in Rajya Sabha, minority affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said that Periodic Labour Force Survey data for 2023-24 estimated literacy among Muslims (aged seven years or more) at 79.5%, although it was lower than the 80.9%-level for all religions groups. In Census 2001, the literacy rate among Muslims was pegged at 59.1% as compared to the all-India literacy rate of 64.8%. The literacy rate among Muslims was 68.5% in 2011 as compared to the all-India rate of 73%. “Thus, the literacy rate among Muslims has increased by 9.4 percentage points in Census 2011 as compared to Census 2001,” Rijiju said.
Replying to another question, he pointed to PLFS data on minorities to show that between 2021-22 and 2023-24, the percentage of women workers among Muslims in the labour force reflected a significant increase of over six percentage points from 15% in 2021-22 to 21.4% in 2023-24. In fact, it had dropped to 14.2% in 2022-23.
