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Article Creation: Systemic Oppression of Dalit Women [India]
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Article Creation: Literacy in Asia - India
While academic research concludes literacy is a better predictor of public health than income, the government and UNESCO agree that literacy is integral for the country’s socio-economic success. Thus, literacy is a governing factor in India’s advancement.

The popular opinion of literacy in India seems to concurs with Census’ definition: the ability to read and write in any language. Census measures Indian literacy rate as the ratio of the literate population to the total population above the age of 7. While the literacy rate at the end of the British colonial period was about 12%, the literacy rate as of 2011 has escalated to 74.04%. Yet, India's literacy rate is not on par with the that of the world: 84.6%. Moreover, these percentages represent absolutes; they do not completely account for disparities.

Consider India’s diversity. India comprises of 28 states and 7 union territories, 1.34 billion people , around 780 spoken languages , power structures including but not limited to: patriarchy, matriarchy, caste, and sub-groups divided according to religion and class. Cultural attitudes also govern who gets educated and how much access they can have to information and resources. For example, females are more likely to be relegated to household chores than be educated. Consequently, literacy rates differ across states, castes, gender, cultures, and age.

The most literate state is the South Indian state Kerala with a literacy rate of 93.9% while the least literate state is the North Indian state Bihar with a literacy rate of 63.8%. Literacy rate is highest for the 10-14 age group (91.1%) and lowest for the 80+ age group (38%). Literacy rate is greatest for urban men (89.7%) and lowest for rural females (58.8%). These disparities can be explained by India’s diversity. Cultural attitudes reveal favor towards males over females and hence, differential treatment in their upbringing such as education. Southern states are more matriarchal while Northern states are more patriarchal. Hence, the overall literacy rate of Southern states is greater than that of Northern states since differential treatment is not advocated as much. With the introduction of a universal elementary education law where every child under the age of 14 has the right to free education and presence of underdeveloped adult-literacy programs, a higher literacy rate for the 10-14 age group makes sense.

The variances in literacy rates has important implications. In a service sector-led economy, growth is determined by literacy which in turn impacts employability. The efficient utilization of welfare programs is controlled by literacy as well, for an illiterate group would not be aware of the resources available to them and hence, would not be able to access and benefit from these welfare programs. As a result, numerous initiatives focused on literacy are being undertaken by NGOs and the government.

So, while India has made significant progress in literacy since independence, significant effort is still required to bridge the literacy gap across the country to allow India to be on par with the rest of the world.

Note : Addition for Wikipedia's Literacy page since the Literacy in Asia section lacked content for India. There was a tag on that page suggesting adding to the page. A page on Literacy in India does exist. However, that page's lead section doesn't seem to give an appropriate overview as it fails to explain why literacy is a complex concept in India.

Article Evaluation: Digital Literacy
The content of the article was relevant. Claims made were neutral. I think creation of relevant content ensured claims were made from a neutral standpoint. Despite a small section being dedicated to global impact, most of the article’s content was geared towards the role of digital literacy in the developed world. Digital literacy increases in complexity when applied to the developing world because literacy in different parts of the same developing country occurs at a disproportionate pace. A holistic definition of digital literacy in both the developing and developed world remains to be presented. Maybe that’s why there exists a warning tag below the "Global impact” section which says this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. A look at the Talk page reveals that this article is a part of multiple WikiProjects: Education, Computing, Linguistics/Applied Linguistics, Internet. The quality of the article is a C. A C-rating is allotted to articles that give a good quick overview, but fail to provide a complete account of the subject. This rating explains the warning tag below the “Global Impact” section. Considering the article is of high importance in Wikipedia’s coverage of computing topics and mid importance in the coverage of education topics, significant editing is required to improve the article’s quality.

The conversations on the talk page focused on both the quality and quantity of content. Suggestions included making the introduction less verbose, reduce inclusion of irrelevant content such as highlighting differences between digital literacy and other types of literacy, and exclusion of electracy. Some conversations seem to develop a hostile tone, but most remain diplomatic. However, most discussions barely address the neutrality of the content as evident under the “potential improvements” section of the talk page — no suggestions include broadening the scope of the article to present a global stance.

While we discussed our individual experiences with digital literacy in class, the article places the topic in a general historical context focusing on the definition and evolution of literacy.

Citations :


 * #2 has a broken link.
 * #34 is a dead link and redirects to a library log in page instead of a source.
 * Most citations had US/Canada press coverage and involved papers presented by MIT press.