Annual Report 1999-2000 Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh showed female life expectancy below the national average.The States ofOrissa, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh also sho^ved high rates ofinfant mortality.The study ofthe three basic indicators—gender ratio,total fertility and female infant mortality at age two—showed 14 districts located in the States ofMadhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, which are more or less contiguous, as the worst affected areas on all the three counts.These are, not unexpectedly, also pockets ofextreme deprivation.^ 2.12 In matters ofeducation and literacy too, the facts indicate that girls and women have suffered discrimination. While the literacy rate in India increased fkim 18.33% in 1951 to 52.2% in 1991,the female literacy also rose during this period from 8.86% to 39.29%.The difference between female and male literacy, however, which was 18.3% in 1951,increased to nearly 25% by 1991, underlining the poorer access of girls and women to education as compared to boys and men.The literacy rate in 1997 was estimated at 62%; 73% for boys and 50%for girls,with the total number ofilliterates in the population aged 7+ being around 294 million.^ Given the difference bettveen the male and female literacy rates,it is clear that the majority ofthese would be female. At the school level, while the enrolment in primary classes was 92.14%(1998-99 provisional), the enrolmentfor boys stood at 100.86% and for girls at 82.85% indicating the continuance ofgender discrimination and the disadvantage suffered by girls. In the upper primary classes also the enrolment figures indicate a considerable gap with the enrolment ofboys at 65.27% and for girls at 49.08%.The drop out rates are also higherfor girls both in primary classes and in elementary school education. It was 44.66% for girls, as against 40.63% for boys in primary classes, and for Classes I to VIII it was 60.09% and 54.4% for girls and boys respectively.^ 2.13 The overall figures, whether in regard to the female to male ratio, life expectancy, maternal anaemia,women's literacy or girls'enrolment,when disaggregated further,reveal the existence ofyet another level ofdiscrimination within the broad category ofwomen and girls only.This relates to women and girls belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes living in rural areas.The literacy rate for scheduled caste women was a mere 23.76% in 1991, and in respect ofwomen belonging to the scheduled tribe it was 18.1%,far lower than the literacy figures for women as a whole. If rural and urban literacy rates for 1997 (literacy percentage ofpopulation ofage 7 years and above)showed largervariation,with the urban literacy rate at80%and the rural literacy rate at 56%,the male-female differential in literacy was pronoimced in the rural areas^vith^vomen's literacy level lower by 25% than that ofmen."* Diversity and Disparities in Human Development—Key Challenges for India, UNDP, New Delhi, January 1999, p. 13. Year 2000 Assessment Education for All, India, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India and National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi, pp. 54, 63-65. Selected Educational Statistics 1998-99, Ministry ofHuman Resource Development,Government ofIndia, pp. XXVI— XXVII. Ibid.