October 2011 Entire Research, Vol.-3, Issue-IV 1 Literacy and Fertility in Uttar Pradesh: A Statistical Analysis Ms. Asha A. Jindal: Associate Professor, Department of Statistics, K.C. College, Mumbai Dr. N. N. Pandey; Principal of Dalmia College and Research Guide, JJTU Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between female literacy rate and mean number of births per ever married woman at district level for Uttar Pradesh using Census 2001 data. This paper also attempts to examine the possible impact of the educational attainment of female on their fertility behavior in Uttar Pradesh. The difference in general fertility rate between illiterate and literate groups of women is 41 points whereas this difference is 33 points in rural area and 37 points in urban area. As the educational attainment of female increases this difference is decreasing in all three total, rural and urban areas of Uttar Pradesh. Key Words: Female Literacy Rate, General Fertility Rate, Total Fertility Rate, Mean Number of Births per ever married woman, Age Specific Fertility Rate, Correlation. Introduction: Female literacy is becoming important as mothers play a central role in supporting children's education. Literate and educated mothers not only push their children to go to school, but are also able to help them with their school work when they do go to school. Therefore, it is argued, literate mothers are a strong weapon in the fight against illiteracy. Secondly, women have economic potential just as men do. If women remain illiterate, some of that economic potential is lost (as it is for men). Therefore, for a people or a nation to achieve development ideals, it is necessary that their female population be educated as well. Third point is that educated women tend to have fewer children than illiterate women. Socio- economic development particularly education plays a key role in reducing fertility and mortality. But in recent years, question is that at what extents the socio- economic development linked with fertility in Indian context or is there over time attributed to some other factors. Some Study shows determinants of fertility are female literacy rate, urbanization, per capita income, regional variation and female work participation etc. Numerous explanations are given to reduce fertility. It is suggested that literacy will lead to delay in marriageable age. This leads to better understanding of contraceptive use which in turn reduces fertility. Data and Analysis: The population census of India, conducted every ten years, is the most comprehensive source of information on the size, distribution, living conditions and demographic characteristics of the population. For estimation of Female Literacy Rate and Mean Number of Births per ever married woman at district level, Census 2001 is used. Besides this, for estimation of Age-Specific Fertility Rate (ASFR), Total Fertility Rate (TFR), General Fertility Rate (GFR), Census 2001 data is used. With regard to educational level of women, they have been classified into 7 groups namely Illiterate, ISSN 0975-5020 October 2011 Entire Research, Vol.-3, Issue-IV 2 Literate, Literate but below primary, Primary but below middle, Middle but below matric or secondary, Matric or secondary but below graduate, Graduate and above in respect of total, rural and urban. The scope of the study is limited to 2001 census data as only provisional total are declared for 2011 census data. Table 1: Correlation Coefficient between Female Literacy Rate and Mean Number of Birth per ever married woman in Uttar Pradesh Correlation Coefficient FLR_2001 MNB Pearson Correlation -.419** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 70 ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Female literacy rate and mean number of births per ever married women are inversely linearly related. The correlation coefficient between two rates is -0.419 which is significant as per Table1. Total Fertility Rate is decreasing as educational attainment of female increases in total, rural and urban areas of Uttar Pradesh (see Figure 1). Figure 1: Total Fertility Rate by Literacy of Women in Uttar Pradesh 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Illiterate Literate Literate but Primary but Middle but Matric or Graduate and below below middle below matric secondary above primary or secondary but below graduate Total Fertility Rate for total Total Fertility Rate for rural Total Fertility Rate for urban Table2: Age- Specific Fertility Rate by Literacy of Women in Uttar Pradesh Age-Specific Fertility Rate for Total Literate but Primary but Middle but Matric or below below below matric secondary but Graduate Age Group Illiterate Literate primary middle or secondary below graduate and above 15-19 0.035 0.012 0.013 0.016 0.012 0.007 0.000 20-24 0.167 0.120 0.156 0.157 0.149 0.092 0.055 25-29 0.176 0.141 0.170 0.159 0.151 0.128 0.101 ISSN 0975-5020 October 2011 Entire Research, Vol.-3, Issue-IV 3 30-34 0.144 0.098 0.132 0.110 0.096 0.079 0.068 35-39 0.100 0.056 0.085 0.064 0.052 0.039 0.031 40-44 0.065 0.034 0.053 0.040 0.030 0.022 0.013 45-49 0.047 0.031 0.040 0.034 0.030 0.022 0.012 GFR 112 71 86 82 72 54 59 TFR 3.672586 2.461435 3.246384 2.901253 2.594811 1.942547 1.406095 Age- Specific Fertility Rate for Rural Literate but Primary but Middle but Matric or below below below matric secondary but Graduate Age Group Illiterate Literate primary middle or secondary below graduate and above 15-19 0.037 0.015 0.014 0.018 0.014 0.010 0.000 20-24 0.171 0.144 0.166 0.165 0.159 0.115 0.084 25-29 0.180 0.159 0.178 0.167 0.160 0.143 0.128 30-34 0.149 0.113 0.140 0.117 0.105 0.093 0.085 35-39 0.105 0.070 0.092 0.071 0.060 0.052 0.043 40-44 0.069 0.044 0.058 0.044 0.035 0.030 0.023 45-49 0.049 0.038 0.042 0.037 0.033 0.027 0.020 GFR 116 83 91 88 80 68 86 TFR 3.796246 2.910359 3.454236 3.08663 2.830271 2.352858 1.917505 Age- Specific Fertility Rate for Urban Literate but Primary but Middle but Matric or below below below matric secondary but Graduate Age Group Illiterate Literate primary middle or secondary below graduate and above 15-19 0.020 0.005 0.007 0.010 0.006 0.003 0.000 20-24 0.135 0.075 0.115 0.122 0.112 0.062 0.043 25-29 0.150 0.110 0.138 0.132 0.121 0.107 0.092 30-34 0.117 0.073 0.106 0.088 0.073 0.064 0.064 35-39 0.076 0.038 0.065 0.048 0.039 0.031 0.028 40-44 0.046 0.021 0.039 0.029 0.023 0.017 0.012 45-49 0.037 0.023 0.034 0.028 0.026 0.020 0.011 GFR 86 49 66 61 51 39 51 TFR 2.907007 1.725746 2.521085 2.28556 2.00305 1.520777 1.252489 Table 2 presents the data on age-specific fertility by literacy status of females in the Uttar Pradesh. The general fertility rate is 112 for illiterate women and 71 for literate women. The difference in general fertility rate between these two groups is 41 points whereas this difference is 33 points in rural area and 37 points in urban area. As the educational attainment of female increases this difference is decreasing in all three total, rural and urban areas of Uttar Pradesh. However GFR is high for women with educational attainment of Graduate and above as well as ASFR is also high for age group of 25-29 ISSN 0975-5020 October 2011 Entire Research, Vol.-3, Issue-IV 4 which is natural phenomena. As for age specific fertility rates, literate woman in all age group have low fertility then their illiterate sisters and this ASFR decreases as educational attainment of female increases in total, rural and urban areas of Uttar Pradesh. Conclusion: Literacy is inversely linearly related to fertility levels of woman in Uttar Pradesh. Government programmes aimed at reducing fertility through the provision of services in respect of family planning methods which would not be of much help as long as female literacy rate is low. Therefore, every effort must be made to promote literacy as well as higher education among females. But these efforts are not very encouraging despite the fact that a constitutional obligation exists for enrollment of all the children up to age of 14 years in primary and middle schools but good proportion of children are still outside. Hence it is important to make all possible efforts to promote literacy among girls and higher technical education among females without much delay. References: 1) Anjum Ara Ahmed: Female Work Participation and Literacy in Maharashtra, International Journal of Research, vol.1 (1), July 2011, pp103-111. 2) Ashish Nathwani: Education for Women Empowerment, In Imran Saleem et al. (Ed), Education in Emerging Indian Society, APH Publishing Corporation, 2012, pp 200- 212. 3) Alka Saxena: Socialisation of Women education, Rajat Publication, New Delhi, 2002, pp 267-312. 4) Anuradha Sharma: Status of Female Literacy in Punjab: Facts and views, Indian Journal of Education, No.38, July-September 2007, pp26-33.