Paper short abstract:

Gender equality is more than a goal and it is a precondition for meeting the challenges of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.

Paper long abstract:

Women constitute 586.5 million out of 632.7 million males (Census 2011) but they still remain a minority in public life and this difference of gender can be seen in all spheres of life. The provision of educational opportunities for women has been an important part of the national endeavor in the field of education since India's Independence but gender disparity persists with uncompromising tenacity, more so in the rural areas and among the disadvantaged communities. The present paper is an attempt to discuss gender inequalities in literacy level among male and female of general, S.C, S.T, Rural and primitive tribes through National and A.P census and field study on Khond tribe of Visakhapatnam (A.P).

Result indicates that gender based inequality has been found to be responsible for poor female literacy rate.