A STUDY ON FEMALE LITERACY LEVEL

This field project is related to the female literacy levels in Durgapuri, Rajghat village development committee, ward no: 5, Morang, Nepal. This project also examines the impact of education on literacy. The field project entitled ―A Study on Female Literacy level in Durgapuri, Rajghat, Morang‖ helps us to identify the literacy levels of selected families of Durgapuri. The population of Nepal is estimated at 29,391,883 people in July 2011, with a population growth rate of 1.596% and a median age of 21.6 years. Female median age is estimated at 22.5 years, and male median age at 20.7 years. Only 4.4% of the population is estimated to be more than 65 years old, comprising 681,252 females and 597,628 males, whereas 61.1% of the population is between 15 and 64 years old, and 34.6% is estimated at younger than 14 years. Birth rate is estimated at 22.17 births/1,000 population with an infant mortality rate at 44.54 deaths per 1,000 live births. Life expectancy at birth is estimated at 67.44 years for females and 64.94 years for males. Death rate is estimated at 681 deaths per 100,000 people. Net migration rate is estimated at 61 migrants per 100,000 people. According to the 2001 census, only 48.6% of the total population is literate, of which 62.7% are male and 34.9% are female(CIA, Central Intelligence Agency (2011) The World Factbook : Nepal). Nepal is landlocked, poorest and least developed country in the world and currently ranks 157 out of 187 countries on the Human Development Index. Situated in the northern hemisphere known as land of Mount Everest and the birth place of Lord Buddha. Nepal occupies only 0.03% and 0.3% of total area of world and Asia respectively. The total area of Nepal is 1,47,181 sq. K.M. Geographically the country divided into three east west ecological Zones, the Northern rage 15% Mountain, the Mid range 68% Hill and the Southern range 17% Terai. Most of rural people in Nepal traditionally depend upon on farming and livestock rearing for their livelihood. The per capital income of Nepali was (US$383) (Central Bureau of statistics 2007). Nepal is an agricultural country (80% people are engaged) and livestock farming (13% contribution on GDP) is an important component of Nepalese agricultural system. The proportion of poor people has declined substantially in recent years. The percentage of people living below the international poverty line (people earning less than US$1.25 per day) has halved in only seven years. At this measure of poverty the percentage of poor people declined from 53.1 percent in 2003/2004 to 24.8 percent in 2010/2011. With a higher poverty line of US$2 dollars per-capita per day, poverty declined by one quarter to 57.3 percent. Net Primary Enrollment in schools has increased from 81 percent in 2002 to 94.5 percent in 2010. Gender and social parity have been achieved in primary education. The Gender Parity Index for secondary school net enrollment has also increased from 0.87 (2007) to 0.98 (2010).The Maternal Mortality Rate declined from 538 in 1996 to 380 per 100,000 live births, earning Nepal the MDG Millennium Award in 2010. The Infant Mortality Rate dropped from 79 in 1996 to 39 in 2010. At least one-third of deliveries are now in the presence of trained health workers. Full immunization coverage rose from 43 percent in 1996 to 87 percent in 2011.Gender disparities in political participation are decreasing both in elected and administrative government. Women now make up over 30 percent of the representatives in parliament. Implementation of an inclusion policy of women in the civil service shows positive trends. Nepal‘s economic growth continues to be adversely affected by the political uncertainty. Nevertheless, real GDP growth is estimated to increase to almost 5 percent for 2011/2012. This is a considerable improvement from the 3.5 percent GDP growth in 2010/2011 and would be the second highest growth rate in the post-conflict era. Sources of growth include agriculture, construction, financial and other services. The contribution of growth by consumption fueled by remittances has declined since 2010/2011. While remittance growth slowed to 11 percent (in Nepali Rupee terms) in 2010/2011 it has since increased to 37 percent. Remittances are estimated to be equivalent to 25-30 percent of GDP.