Burma: Census of India 1901 Vol. I - Khamkoo

6 4 REPORT ON THE CENSUS OF BURMA.
still in any case it is beyond question that there are not now as many literate rhates
in a given number of the population of the province as there were a decade back
and that the inclusion in the operations of the Shan States and the Chin Hills is
what has sent the proportion down. It may here be noted that, though the proportion
of male literates has fallen, that of female literates has, in spite of adverse
circumstances, risen to a higher level than in 1891. This point will be touched
upon hereafter in connection with the question of female education.
89. Subsidiary Table No. V-A appended to this chapter gives the education
, . of the population by age and sex. As I have remarked
.
y age p no .^ an ear]jer paragraph, the alteration of the education
age periods renders comparison with the data of the 1891 Census with regard to
literacy by age a somewhat difficult task. The difficulty is increased by the fact that
the only periods where exact correspondence of age can be attained (i.e., the 1901
o— 10 and 10— 15 age periods as against the o— 15 age period of 1891) are the
very periods in which there are the largest numbers of learners whose classification
introduces an element of doubt- The returns show that of every thousand boys of
under fifteen who were enumerated on the 1st March J 901 117 were literate, and
that of every thousand girls of a similar age 26 were able to read and write. "In 1891
the corresponding proportion" in one thousand of each sex was 60 boys and 10 girls.
But in addition to these literates there were no less than 134 boys and 1 1 girls in
every thousand of each sex who were shown as learning. How many of these
v/ere really literate then and how many fell actually short of the required standard it
is impossible for us now to say. Practically the only fact that we can carry away
from a consideration of the figures is the significant one that, despite the addition
to the Census area of the unlettered political charges, the number of literate
females of under 15 in 1901 was proportionately as well as actually higher than
ten years previously. The last two columns of Subsidiary Table V-A are instructive
as testifying to the enormous educational advantages that are being reaped by the
younger generation of females. For every thousand literate males of 20 years of
age and over there are only 91 females, or less than ten per cent-; between the
ages of fifteen and twenty and ten and fifteen there are 167 and 178 literate
females, respectively, to every thousand literate of the other sex. This is a substantial
advance for the weaker sex, but it is eclipsed by the figures for the earliest age
period. In the case of literate children of under ten years of age, that is to say,
among those born since the last Census who have already learnt
to read and write,
there are no less than 368 girls to every thousand boys, or, to put it roughly, there
is rather more than one of the former to every three of the latter. It may be urged
that these ratios are based on figures too insignificant in themselves to be of
any great statistical value. The actuals are, it is true, not enormous, but they
are quite large enough to generalize upon. They are, for male literates of under ten,
44,752, for female literates below a similar age 16,489. Such as they are they may
truly be said to augur well for the prospects of female education in the province.
90. Not the least surprising fact that was disclosed by the figures of the
~. „ ..
X
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t r.
^9 X Census was that of all the districts in Burma
District proportion of literacy. .,* ouiv.ua m
,.
yuiuid.,
, ., .
the one in which the largest proportion of literate
males was to be found was the Upper Chindwin. Mr. Eales explained the high
ratio in that year by pointing out that the Shan States of Kale, Thaungdut and
Kanti had been excluded from the regular census, and that the operations had in
consequence embraced only the more cultured portions of the district. The experience
of .the last enumeration shows, however, that, even had these backward
areas been comprised ten years ago in the dealings of the department, the result
would probably have been very much the same as it was with these tracts omitted.
Subsidiary Table No. V-C appended to this chapter shows that though the Upper
Chindwin (including Kale and Thaungdut) has now to yield the' first place in the
matter of male literacy to Minbu^it comes a good second in the list of districts
with a total of 530 literate males in every thousand of that sex. Minbu is only
slightly ahead of the Upper Chindwin with 533 literate males in a similar number
and Shwebo and Magwe follow it—not very closely—with 505 and 501 respectively.
All these are rural, on the whole, in character. In Mandalay city the proportion