CCSAP Report - Ministry of Home Affairs

and higher education as well as medium of instruction being solely Urdu at the
time of its merger with the Indian union. Telangana students (and employees)
were thus doubly disadvantaged by not only having limited access to education
but also little familiarity with English. Indeed, at the time of the merger, the
region was short of qualified teachers and this gap was filled by bringing in
teachers from coastal Andhra. This later became an issue of discord during the
1969 agitation. However, as mentioned above, Telangana has reduced the gap in
literacy over the last few decades and this becomes more visible if we look at
literacy rates among the youth population (See sub-para 3.1.04).
3.2.02 Besides historical factors, there are other socio-economic reasons
why overall literacy tends to be lower in certain parts of the state. It is a known
fact that literacy levels are lower among the rural, poor and socially deprived
sections (SC, ST, BC, Muslim minorities and Women). The illiteracy rates are
highest among the ST female adults in rural areas of Andhra Pradesh (96.5% in
1991 which declined to 86.5% by 2001) depicting the impact of multiple
deprivations. Table 3.2 gives the region-wise literacy rates of different social
groups.
Table 3.2: Region-wise literacy rates of different social groups
Regions SC Literacy Rate, 2001 ST Literacy Rate, 2001 Literacy Rate, 2001
Males Females Total Males Females Total Males Females Total
Andhra Pradesh 64 43 54 48 26 37 70 50 60
Tel inc Hyd 59 36 47 47 23 35 69 47 58
Tel exc Hyd 58 34 46 47 22 35 67 43 55
Hyderabad 77 61 69 65 46 55 84 74 79
Rayalaseema 64 39 51 55 32 44 72 47 60
Coastal Andhra 68 52 60 47 30 38 71 55 63
Source: Census of India: 2001
As is clear, literacy rates are particularly low for the ST population in all the
regions of the state and since Telangana has the highest concentration of tribals
among the three regions, this provides one explanation for the overall low
literacy in the region. Also, Social Disparity Index for the STs in Telangana
declined at a much slower rate than that in the other two regions during 1971-
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