Over 130 million workers in India have not passed tenth grade!

Illiterate main workers constitute 28.8 per cent of the total 362.6 million main workers while 19.7 per cent are literate with matriculate/secondary but below graduate level.

Over 130 million main workforce in the country have education level below matriculation, the government said on Monday.

Citing 2011 Census, Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary informed Lok Sabha that 130.2 million main workers and 43.4 million marginal workers in the country are literate but below matric/secondary level.

Illiterate main workers constitute 28.8 per cent of the total 362.6 million main workers while 19.7 per cent are literate with matriculate/secondary but below graduate level, he said in a written reply in the House.

Those workers who had worked for the major part of the reference period (six months or more) are termed as main workers while those who had not worked for the major part of the reference period (less than six months) are termed as marginal workers.

Chaudhary said to improve the literacy level of the country, the HRD Ministry is implementing a centrally-sponsored scheme called 'Saakshar Bharat' in rural areas of 410 districts in the country where adult female literacy rate as per census 2001 is 50 per cent and below.