New Delhi: For a country with a population of 1.25 billion plus, education has been touted as a key driver for development and the upliftment of the poor. Moreover, with India sitting on a huge pool of resources which have been pegged as India’s demographic dividend, education needs to be an indispensable part of India’s growth story.
In some welcome signs, the population of Indian students in the age group of 5-19 years has accelerated by 30 per cent over the 10 years between 2001 and 2011, fresh Census data has revealed. However, the rise in student population is not evenly distributed across religions.
As per the data, Muslim students have recorded an increase of 44 per cent while girl students in the same category have reported jump of 53 per cent.
The shift towards recognising the importance of education is also visible in the age group of 5-19 years, where there are 63 per cent of Muslim students. However this number is still less as compared to the population of Hindu students which is 73 per cent.
Meanwhile, Jains have the highest - 88 per cent students in the 5-19 age group, which is followed by Christians bagging the second place.
In terms of employment, the total share of persons looking for work among the age group of 20-29 years was 20 per cent for the country as a whole.
Among Christian youth, unemployment rate was eminently high by 26 per cent.
This data is highly disturbing as Christians were the highest educated community in the last census, with 71 per cent of the 5-19 years age group studying.
In the latest census, the Christian student population reached 80 per cent of the same age group.
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