Statsguru: Nearly four out of five Indians are literate, shows govt data

Around the time the country gained independence, an average Indian could only expect to live to their early thirties, and more than 80 per cent of the population was illiterate. The period since then has seen average life expectancy increase to around 70 years. Nearly four out of five Indians are literate, according to government data (charts 1, 2).


 

Much of this has coincided with higher economic growth, aided by democratic accountability. The per capita net national income, broadly a measure of an average Indian’s earnings, has increased from Rs. 12,493 in 1950-51 to Rs. 98,374 in 2022-23 after adjusting for inflation. It was Rs. 34,107 in the 50th year of freedom from the British. Nevertheless, this only translates into a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.9 per cent. The size of India’s economy is now 3.4 per cent of global gross domestic product. It was 2.7 per cent in 1960 and had declined to nearly 1.1 per cent in the early 1990s before the benefits of liberalisation kicked in (chart 3).
 

One key reason for India’s low growth is said to be low merchandise exports, which helped propel countries such as China and South Korea to prosperity. India’s share of global merchandise exports dropped to less than 0.5 per cent in the early 1980s. The pick-up since then has taken it to 1.8 per cent in 2022. This is still below the 2.2 per cent seen in 1948 (chart 4).
 

Economic growth has helped improve the availability of food grains and energy. The net availability of food grains had increased from 52.4 million tonnes in 1951 to 259.1 million tonnes in 2022 (chart 5), though malnourishment remained a problem.
 

Increased capacity addition in the power sector has helped keep the lights on with improved household connectivity to the grid. The availability of electricity was up from 18 kilowatt-hours to 1,255 kilowatt-hours in 2022 (chart 6).