Can India’s “literate” read?

This paper takes a close look at India’s literacy rate by exploring whether the officially “literate” can read and at what level. In a large sample, aged 7+, drawn from four Hindi-speaking states, two methods were used to measure literacy. One was the standard Census Method (CM) which relies on self-reporting and the other was a Reading Method (RM) which required the same individuals to actually read a simple text at grade 2 level. The findings revealed a substantial difference between the reading literacy rates obtained by CM and RM. CM over-reported RM by 16%. The overestimation was higher for males. Decoding skills were found to erode in most cases after completion of primary schooling, assuming no further education. A minimum grade 8–9 education was required for decoding skills to not deteriorate after schooling.