Officially the female literacy rate of Visakhapatnam district is 59.34 %, Srikakulam (52.08 %), while is is 49.87 % in Vizianagaram district. The female literacy rate in all the three districts, which form part of the MLC graduate constituency, is much below the national level of 65.46 %.
But in reality, if literacy is benchmarked to the graduate level then it is even further down. This can be ascertained from the enrolment of women graduate voters for the MLC graduate constituency elections.
Vsakhapatnam district has a total of registered 90,074 graduate voters, of whom 56,659 are male and 33,103 are female voters. Similarly, Vizianagaram district has a total of 34,570 voters (24,308 male and 10,167 female voters) and Srikakulam district has 31,313 voters -- 23,096 male and 8,063 female voters. This tunes up women graduate voters in Visakhapatnam to 36.75 %, Srikakulam 25.74 % and Vizianagaram as low as 24.40 %.
But when compared to the general elections, the women voters score above the men in all the three districts. As per the 2014 election survey, Visakhapatnam had 16,70,727 male voters compared to 16,75,687 female voters.
While in Vizianagaram the number of male voters are 6,48,660, the female voters are 6,74,578, and in Srikakulam it is 5,93,164 and 6,32,961.
Misinterpreted
According to M.V.S. Sarma, the present MLC of the graduate constituency, literacy rate in India is grossly misinterpreted. “Anybody who can read or write is considered to be a literate. But in true sense, a literate person is a graduate who can earn a livelihood with his or her education. The percentage of women graduates is abysmally low in north coastal AP,” he points out.
It is not the primary education that should be taken into consideration. Gender bias is still prevalent in the rural and tribal areas of the three districts. And in most cases women drop out of education after the primary or tenth class, says Mr. Sarma.
According to Mr. Sarma, factors such as affordability, accessibility, taboo and conservatism, and economic conditions play a major role in forcing women to drop out of education at an early age.
Aja Sarma from the CPI (M), who is contesting for the MLC position points out that barely 10 % of the women in tribal and rural areas are allowed to pursue graduate level education.
He has faulted the government for not taking the adequate steps to encourage women to go for higher education.
In Visakhapatnam district there are only six government degree colleges. Whereas there are numerous corporate colleges that are out of reach of the poor and middle classes. In such a scenario, where the parents have to decide whether to educate the male child or the girl, the clear verdict goes in favour of the male child, says Mr. Aja Sarma.
