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.