Literacy rate rises 10% in a decade

India has shown considerable improvement in literacy levels in 10 years, yet one in 10 households still doesn't have even a single literate member, shows Census 2011 data. On the other hand, more than one-third of the country's households have at least four literate members above seven.
Literacy data says India has 24.88 crore households out of which 9.56 crore (38.4%) have at least four members who know to read and write. But there are also 2.42 crore households (9.7%) which don't have even one literate member. Of India's 24.9 crore households, 38.4% have at least four literate members while 9.7% don't have even one, say Census 2011 figures. In comparison, as per the 2001 census, 35.3% of the households had at least four literate members and 14.4% had none.
India has an effective literacy rate (among people aged 7 years and above) of 74%, a marked improvement from 2001, when the literacy was just 64.84%. In rural areas, the rate is lower at about 68% while in urban areas it is 84%.A `household' is a group of persons who normally live together and take their meals from a common kitchen, unless the exigencies of work prevent any of them from doing so.