as youth — have increased, still the absolute number of illiterates in India is as much as India’s population was at the time of independence. In , when the Constitution of India was passed by the Constituent Assembly, it was noted in Fig. . School dropouts give way to child labour: a loss to human capital the Directive Principles of the Constitution that the government should provide free and compulsory education for all children up to the age of years within years from the commencement of the Constitution.
Had we achieved this, we would have cent per cent literacy by now. Gender Equity — Better than Before : The differences in literacy rates between males and females are narrowing signifying a positive development in gender equity; still the need to promote education for women in India is imminent for various reasons such as improving economic independence and social status of women and also because women education makes a favourable impact on fertility rate and health care of women and children. Therefore, we cannot be complacent about the upward movement in the literacy rates and we have miles to go in achieving cent per cent adult literacy. education level.
Moreover, the level of unemployment among educated youth is the highest. As per NSSO data, in the year - , the rate of unemployment among youth males who studied graduation and above in rural areas was per cent. Their urban counterparts had relatively less level of unemployment at per cent. The most severely affected ones were young rural female graduates as nearly per cent of them are unemployed.
In contrast to this, only about - per cent of primary level educated youth in rural and urban areas were unemployed. Therefore, the government should increase allocation for higher education and also improve the standard of higher education institutions, so that students are imparted employable skills in such institutions. When compared to less educated, a large proportion of educated persons are unemployed. Why?
. C ONCLUSION The economic and social benefits of human capital formation and human development are