Kerala’s 100 per cent literacy myth has been busted. About 2.2 lakh persons belonging to Scheduled Castes in the state are illiterate. This comes up to 9.5 per cent of the dalit population. This was one of the main findings in the provisional data prepared by Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) as part of its study on scheduled caste habitats and families.
The study also suggests that the illiteracy among scheduled caste was not decreasing, but increasing.
The number of illiterates among children of the age groups five and nine among dalits is 27,355. Illiterates among children in the age group of 10 and 14 are 454. In the age group, 15 and 24 the number illiterates are 2,045.
The study also finds 66 per cent of the Scheduled Castes population are in the below poverty line category.
The study also finds that landlessness is another major problem faced by scheduled castes. The 14.5 lakh scheduled castes living in various colonies in the state together only own 29,000 acres. The irony was that 3.4 lakh Scheduled Caste families live in this 29,000 acre land.
The study also finds that 70,000 Scheduled Caste families in the state are landless. Another 2.5 lakh families live in one room houses.