SOCIOECONOMIC-STATUS AND FEMALE LITERACY IN INDIA

It seems as if the universally acclaimed need for literacy has recentl y re-gained currency in India, justifying enormous investment in areas traditionally scorned for their low rate of return. The focus on incr eased enrolment, retention and achievement in primary education, in co njunction with feverish Total Literacy Campaigns conducted by the Gove rnment of India (GOI), may be credited with steering the spotlight awa y from more pressing structural problems such as the deeply ingrained gender bias at all levels of the education-employment matrix and the i nherently gendered nature of the ideological framework underlying educ ational provision in India. Seldom questioned is the value and relevan ce of the kind of literacy being advocated or the logic behind the slo gan 'basic education as a basic human need'. It can be argued that chu rning out batches of literate women does not guarantee the articulatio n of their needs or their participation in planning and decision makin g. This paper argues that, divorced from other areas such as women's l ow socio-economic status, labour market inequalities and legal bias, l iteracy programmes are a relatively inexpensive and politically expedi ent palliative in their present limited form.