ST literacy rate low in NE

NEWDELHI, Aug 12 – Barring Mizoram, literacy rate of Schedule Tribe (ST) in North Eastern States is comparatively low. While Assam’s literacy rate is 63.3 per cent, the ST population is stuck at 62.5 per cent. The gap in literacy rate is glaring in almost all States in the region. The gap is widest in Tripura, where only 56.5 per cent of ST is literate and much lower, as compared with the State’s overall literacy rate of 73.2, Minister of State for Tribal Welfare, Mahadeo Singh Khandela said in a Lok Sabha reply to a question by Joseph Toppo.