The literacy rate in Madhya Pradesh–with 72.6 million, India’s fifth largest population–was India’s ninth lowest, 70.6%, in 2011. This was an increase of 6.86 percentage points from 2001–the second-lowest increase among BIMARU states, according to Census 2011.
Learning levels in rural MP are among India’s worst. Only 34% of all children surveyed in grade V in rural MP could read a grade II level text, the second lowest across all states–only behind Assam–according to the 2014 Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), and the proportion of grade V children who could at least subtract was 31%, the lowest in India.
