Literacy: Kottayam, Kollam, Alapuzha on top

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:  The decennial census exercise has thrown up an interesting detail; that Kottayam, Alappuzha and Kollam are special when it comes to reading and writing skills. They are the only districts in Kerala where literacy rates are higher in rural areas than the urban.

97.17 per cent of the rural populace of Kottayam are literate, say Census 2011 Provisional Population Totals on Rural and Urban Distribution released recently. Urban literacy in Kottayam is slightly lower 94.49 per cent. Literates number 96.40 per cent of the total population in the district.

In Alappuzha, 96.72 per cent of the rural population is literate, while the urban literacy in the coastal district has been pegged at 95.87 per cent. Alappuzha district, with a total population of just over 21.21 lakh, is 96.26 per cent literate, according to Census 2011.

Kollam too has a similar tale. While 94.10 per cent of the rural population can read and write, the percentage possessing the same set of skills in the urban locations is slightly lower 93.38 per cent. Kollam is 93.77 per cent literate.

"There has been quite a lot of focus on the rural areas of the state in recent years. Bharanikkavu in Alappuzha district is a perfect example. There, literacy campaigns had been intensified with the help of the panchayat," says assistant director of the Kerala State Literacy Mission K Ayyappan Nair.

The three southern districts should number amongst a handful at the nationallevel itself in the ruralurban aspect of literacy. Census 2011 had pegged Kerala's literacy at 93.91 per cent, an encouraging jump from 90.86 percent ten years ago. The literacy of each district was determined as part of the Census 2011 Population Enumeration held last February.

Pathanamthitta leads the 14 districts in the matter of literacy with 96.93 perc ent of the population deemed to be literate.