Individuals are poor because they lack skills, education and training. It's needless to mention here that people's basic education strengthens the demand for smaller families which, together with better provisions of family planning services, helps to tackle the population problem.

It is not just at the top of the ladder that the rungs are missing -- a significant number of schools lack the most basic infrastructure, let alone access to the Internet. One might ask why it is then that some states performed well beyond expectation and others failed. Kerala has been always an excellent performer in the literacy campaign.

On an average, 10 per cent Keralites remained illiterate in 1991 -- about 6 per cent among males and 14 percent among the females. The figures are even more revealing when it comes to the rural and urban areas. About 11 per cent rural Keralites have been struggling to read and write -- the percentage of males being about 7 per cent and females about 15 per cent The story in urban areas is along similar lines with minor variations.

Figures from Himachal Pradesh make interesting reading. About 63 per cent were illiterate in 1971. In 1991, the figure came down to 36 per cent. In 20 years, 75 per cent males in the state became literate. The performance of females is, however, quite revealing. In 1971, barely one out of five Himachali women was literate. In 1991, an estimated three in every five knew how to read and write. This is significant a jump from 20 per cent to 50 per cent in 20 years. In recent times, southern states like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have also seen impressive successes in this area.

It may be useful to compare HP's performance with some northern states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Biharand Uttar Pradesh. For example, in 1971, one of every five Rajasthanis was literate, the figure appears to be two in every five in 1991 three in every five males and one in every five females. The rural-urban comparison portrayed an even more dismal picture.

Let's take a closer look at the four states of Bihar, MP, Rajasthan, and UP, which are commonly characterised as lagging behind the rest of the country in terms of key demographic criteria. The 1991 census indicated that for persons aged 7 and above, the literacy rate in these four states ranges from 39 per cent in Bihar to 44 per cent in MP as against 9 per cent in south India, with the gap getting more pronounced in the younger age-groups.

Female literacy rates are even more frustrating. In UP, only one woman out of four in the 7-plus age group was able to read and write in 1991. However, if the figures are disaggregated, the picture that emerges shows significant variations according to regions and population groups. While the 7-plus femaleliteracy rate in UP as a whole was 25 per cent in 1991, the figure goes down to 19 per cent for rural areas, 11 per cent for scheduled castes, 8 per cent for scheduled castes in rural areas and 8 per cent for the whole rural population in the most educationally backward districts.

The scenario is thus quite bleak. It points to what Jean Dreze and Haris Gazdar termed as ``social failure''. Teaching and management standards in government schools are extremely poor in UP. Besides, children who do attend government schools receive very little education because of the high rate of absenteeism among teachers. Crude teaching methods only compound this serious problem.

How does West Bengal perform on this score? Like most of the states in India, a large number of people in West Bengal predictably want to be educated. Equally predictably, about half of them claim that ``lack of opportunities'' is their biggest problem. In 20 years, only 19 per cent took the advantage of existing opportunities to get literate. In1971, literates were 39 per cent of the population. By 1991, they accou-nted for 58 per cent. The rural-urban picture reveals a similar trend.

There are several reasons for these variations ranging from limitations in government spending on education to the success or failures of NGOs working in this sector. Inciden-tally, the role of the government in education was minimal in some regions, with community systems, cooperatives, social responsibility systems, NGOs and other agencies playing an important role.

For instance, community education systems worked effectively in HP and some select states. Most of the decisions concerning education were taken by village societies for their own upliftment. Indeed, governments now seem to understand that the larger the share of resources for this purpose through various local agencies, the better the results.

Unfortunately, some states have failed to provide any productive result in any circumstance. What's more, they suffer from a complete lack of credible data.Official claims of having completely eradicated illiteracy from some districts seem overly exaggerated. It is to be noted here that a significant amount of money has been spent for the purpose.

Indeed in West Bengal, this has also been done through political channels. However, despite a significant proportion of the CPM's local-level leadership comprising village school teachers, it is somewhat surprising that the regular schooling system has received so little attention.

What are the consequences of the literacy rate in some of the select states? In recent times there appears to be a strong relationship between state domestic product and the magnitude of skilled manpower across Indian states with few exceptions. The more skill-based education they have, the more likely they are to create an ideal environment for investment opportunities.

Most of the actual foreign investment has, in fact, been taking place in such states. So what should other states do? If they want to see their states prosper, theobvious answer is the depoliticisation of the primary education system. This sounds rational and, in a sense, it is. In the long run an efficient education system in a particular area will augment socio-economic development there. Otherwise it would be a good example of the failure of the government and of the political leadership.

The writer is ACC chair professor at the International Management Institute, Delhi