International Literacy Day provides an occasion for celebration, but in India it should also be an occasion for uncomfortable questions. What exactly are we celebrating? A rising literacy rate is undoubtedly a major social achievement, but literacy is only the first step towards education. A person who can read, write and perform basic calculations is literate; an educated person should also be able to understand, reason, acquire skills, make informed decisions and participate in society.

This distinction makes the celebrations meaningful only if they become a reminder of the unfinished educational agenda. India has made progress since Independence, but the distance between states remains wide and the gap between enrolment and actual learning remains even more worrying.

The uneven national picture

The latest Periodic Labour Force Survey data show how uneven the country’s literacy landscape remains. For persons aged seven years and above, literacy in 2025 was about 73.1 per cent in Bihar, 74 per cent in Rajasthan, 74.6 per cent in Telangana, 77.2 per cent in Uttar Pradesh and 79.5 per cent in Jharkhand. Andhra Pradesh stood at 71.4 per cent. At the other end, Kerala was at 95.6 per cent and Mizoram at 99.8 per cent. Himachal Pradesh, at 98.8 per cent in the same survey, was among the stronger and top performers, although the state has since reported a 99.5 per cent literacy achievement under its full-literacy campaign.

These figures expose the danger of looking at India through a national average. Educational opportunity remains deeply influenced by geography, poverty, gender, social conditions and the capacity of state governments to maintain schools and retain teachers. Bihar and Rajasthan, for example, still face a formidable task in raising literacy among older generations and narrowing the gender gap.

For Maharashtra, the 2011 Census recorded a literacy rate of 82.9%, well above India’s national average of 74%. Male........

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