Kerala 2005 - of Planning Commission

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proportion of households with more than one hectare
declining over time. Landlessness is higher among the SCs
than STs as also the ‘others’ (Nair and Menon, Ibid).
Both the Central and State Governments have made
various efforts to protect and promote the land rights of
the SC and ST population. Yet, the outcome is far from
satisfactory, given the requirement of these households,
largely dependent on land. The surplus land declared
in Kerala as part of land reforms was itself low at only
1.35 lakh acres. Out of this 47 per cent of the area
was distributed among vulnerable sections as on March
1996. It has benefited nearly 43 per cent of the SCs and
5 per cent of the ST population. The average size of
land made available to the SCs was only 41 cents; and
for STs, it was 71 cents. As per the national guidelines,
50 per cent of the surplus land declared is to be
distributed among the SCs and STs. While the all-India
situation meets this stipulation, Kerala lags behind with
only 47 per cent of the area declared surplus having
been made available to Scheduled Castes and Tribes thus
far. Hence, the achievement on this front lags behind
expectations, which has led to the recent struggles
for land rights in Kerala by adivasi organisations
(Ravi Raman, 2003).
5.5 Education
What gets obscured by the very high aggregate levels
of literacy in the State are the horizontal disparities
Table 4.7: Level of Education among Social Groups, 1999-2000 (Rural)
Level of Education ST SC OBC Others
Illiterate 26.36 23.60 17.36 11.67
Literate Without Formal Schooling 0.33 1.80 0.93 0.86
Below Primary 16.12 17.05 18.31 12.30
Primary 12.50 20.99 19.76 14.93
Middle 26.32 25.67 27.52 26.00
Secondary 8.22 7.49 10.72 19.50
Higher Secondary 5.26 1.67 3.20 7.44
Graduation above 4.90 1.73 3.20 7.30
Source: Nair and Menon (2006, forthcoming).
Table 4.8: Literacy Rate by Social Groups, 1991 Census
Non-SC/ST Scheduled Caste Scheduled Tribe
Districts Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female Total
Thiruvananthapuram 94 87 90 87 78 82 82 67 74
Kollam 95 89 92 85 74 80 69 56 62
Pathanamthitta 98 95 96 90 83 86 76 71 73
Alappuzha 97 92 94 94 85 89 80 69 74
Kottayam 98 95 96 94 87 90 90 87 89
Idukki 94 88 91 81 64 73 68 57 63
Ernakulam 96 90 93 87 78 82 81 72 77
Thrissur 95 89 92 84 74 79 55 48 51
Palakkad 91 80 85 75 60 67 40 29 35
Malappuram 93 85 89 85 74 79 50 38 44
Kozhikode 96 87 92 91 81 86 57 48 52
Wayanad 94 86 90 82 69 75 58 43 51
Kannur 96 88 92 90 80 85 65 52 59
Kasaragod 91 78 85 70 57 64 75 58 66
Kerala 95 88 91 85 74 80 63 51 57
Coefficient of Variation (%) 3.5 6.5 5.0 7.6 11.9 9.5 20.1 26.1 22.7
Source: Census of India, 1991.