Sahana Srikanth

High School Finalist, Grade 12
Mason, Ohio

Female Literacy Is India’s Emergency

For years, Kali could not read her own name.

Born in the tribal Indian village of Alirajpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kali was thrust into a community where girls are traditionally considered “not suitable enough” for education (MONA, 2024). Because of her gender, Kali was deprived of the opportunity to become literate as a child. Illiteracy left Kali with inescapable struggles - an inability to find work, manage her health, or support her family.

But Kali’s story is only a microcosm of a dangerous occurrence among numerous women in India: illiteracy.

The Problem: Context and Causes

Over 207 million females in India (30.1% of women) currently experience illiteracy (O'Neill, 2024), with women comprising up to 60% of India’s total illiterate population. Yet, these concerns are nothing new. India’s female illiteracy crisis is identifiably institutional. Prevailing societal stigmas and pervasive gender bias have plagued India’s communities for centuries, causing immeasurable damage to how women’s education is prioritized locally and federally (Kumari 2023). These institutional causes of illiteracy are widespread, but they can be categorized threefold.

Child Marriage

Nearly 25% of Indian girls marry before 18. In rural areas, this rate is up to 56% (UNICEF, Ghosh). Due to household responsibilities and early pregnancies, child marriages force girls to stay at home instead of pursuing education; thus, nearly 8 in 10 young married girls drop out of school, costing them access to essential literacy development opportunities.

Menstrual Inequity

In India, 23 million girls drop out of school each year simply due to a lack of school-based menstrual hygiene management facilities (Bharadwaj, 2023). With schools facing a dearth of sanitary pad disposal bins, girls will struggle to take care of personal hygiene during the day, ultimately discouraging their overall attendance.

Literacy Spending Gap

Dr. Rashmi from Mumbai’s International Institute for Population Sciences highlights that the difference in the average per capita educational spending between boys and girls is over ₹935 for ages 11 to 22. This is attributed to cultural norms that favor educational investments in sons over daughters, causing girls to end up experiencing illiteracy at greater levels.

As these causes continue, the consequences of female illiteracy expand shockingly far beyond the classroom.

Impacts: Challenges & Long-Term Consequences

When a girl is denied the ability to read and write, it isn’t just her future that suffers—it’s also the well-being of her community. Female illiteracy is India’s most pressing developmental issue because it has dangerous detrimental consequences on both the nation and its people.

Illiterate girls face extensive difficulties getting employed or entering the workforce, which hinders India’s scientific innovation and technological progression. The World Literacy Foundation confirmed that illiteracy costs India around $53 billion annually - an astronomical cost, comparable to ½ Andhra Pradesh’s GDP (Kumar, 2025).

Furthermore, illiteracy has distressing impacts on population health. Mothers with secondary education are 2 times as likely to give birth safely as mothers with no education (UNESCO, 2010). For India, a nation where 52 mothers lose their lives to childbirth every day, female literacy is a life-saving prevention tool for prospective mothers (UN, 2023). In fact, if every woman had a primary education, maternal deaths would fall by nearly 66% overall for a country (Handebo, 2019).

Evidently, women’s illiteracy doesn’t just prevent women from making progress in society - it prevents society from making progress altogether.

Indeed, distinguished scientist and former President of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam once remarked, “If you educate a man, you educate a person. But if you educate a woman; you educate a family, a nation.”

As a youth advocate for equitable literacy, I have seen firsthand what Dr. Kalam’s principles mean in the real world. Last summer, I served as a Tutor for AID India’s Learning Beyond Limits program, where I mentored ~20 youth living in rural areas of Jawadhu Hills, Tamil Nadu. As I taught, I witnessed directly how girls struggled to sound out words, write letters, and express themselves. In our cohort, I mentored Golulavani, a young girl who was enthusiastic about learning but could not understand our content or answer questions. This revealed to me the true, human consequences of illiteracy - it deprives youth of their natural curiosity and confidence in learning new subjects.

Growing up constantly immersed in literature, books and literacy have always been close to my heart. Wanting to support others’ literacy journey, I founded the Young Learners Foundation, a nonprofit organization that has donated 4,200 books (saving $40,000) to 15 organizations in illiteracy hotspots and book deserts internationally. Seeing the enthusiasm youth have at receiving their first book has deepened my commitment to helping advance youth literacy, especially for young girls.

But book donations alone are not enough - so what can be done regarding India’s female illiteracy crisis?

Solutions: Policy and Advocacy

Address Child Marriage at the Local Level. India’s Panchayati Raj system, designed for rural self-governance, is uniquely positioned to combat child marriage through community-led interventions. Local Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) can partner with initiatives like Plan International’s Girls Advocacy Alliance to run training programs that raise awareness of the harms of early marriage and empower girls to resist it (Plan, 2020). Additionally, states like Tamil Nadu have launched an Integrated Child Protection Scheme to build safe village environments, but many Village Child Protection Committees (tasked with preventing child marriage) remain inactive. Local villages must reactivate these committees with accountability, including mandates such as ensuring all girls in a region are enrolled in school (Children Believe, 2022).
Improve School Infrastructure and Menstrual Hygiene. According to the National Family Health Survey, only 48.6% of India’s rural schools have usable toilets for girls. The central government must invest in infrastructure like clean toilets, sanitary pad disposal bins, free menstrual products, and regular maintenance to create safer, healthier learning environments for girls. In doing so, they will reduce dropout rates caused by poor menstrual support.
Close the Gender Spending Gap on Education. Indian States should establish dedicated scholarship funds for rural girls, and ensure to promote awareness of these scholarships among disadvantaged regions. Families should be able to leverage such scholarships for girls’ school-related expenses (textbooks, backpacks, pencils), encouraging enrollment for girls living in rural regions. Making girls' education financially accessible will challenge traditional societal norms that undervalue daughters’ education while ensuring not to strain household incomes.
Support Grassroots Efforts. We all have a role to play in bridging illiteracy gaps internationally. You can take action by donating to organizations like Educate Girls, Team Balika, and Room To Read. These groups mobilize local volunteers to identify and enroll out-of-school girls, host workshops, and run awareness campaigns within Indian communities. By working directly at the local level in the heart of the crisis, these programs interact with thousands of girls each year to provide them with necessary literacy resources and support to thrive. These solutions will not be easily accomplished, but progress has to start somewhere. A simple $350 scholarship to Indore’s Barli Institute allowed Kali to access residential education, where she found her passions for solar cooking and organic farming. Now, Kali has learned to read and write, permitting her to start her own business and become the first female land owner in her village. Kali’s story is proof that our contributions do make a difference. Our advocacy can change lives. With small, collective action, we can help underserved women like Kali access the fundamental human right that is literacy.