SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 17 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

According to Census of India 2011, what is the gap between male and female literacy rate in India?

(a)21.59%
(b)24.84%
(c)16.68%
(d)18.30%

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Census 2011 records male literacy at 82.14% and female literacy at 65.46%.

82.14 − 65.46 = 16.68

That difference of 16.68 percentage points is what the paper calls the gap, so the answer is option (c). The all-India literacy rate the same Census reports is 74.04%.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
21.59% — 21.59% is far wider than the 2011 difference. The male-female gap was wider a decade earlier and narrowed by 2011, which is what makes the figure feel familiar.
(b)
24.84% — 24.84% would require female literacy near 57.30%, since 82.14 minus 24.84 is 57.30. The Census records 65.46%.
(d)
18.30% — 18.30% is the closest trap: it implies female literacy of 63.84%, whereas the published figure is 65.46%.

Concept

Census literacy is measured for the population aged seven and above, and a person counts as literate if they can read and write with understanding in any language.

The 2011 round records 74.04% overall, 82.14% for males and 65.46% for females.

The male-female gap is a straight subtraction of those two rates. It is a difference in percentage points, not a percentage of anything, even though papers usually print it with a percent sign.

All four options are written as percentages, so the loose notation does not change what you compute — subtract the female rate from the male rate and match.

Key facts

Census 2011 literacy stands at 74.04% overall, 82.14% for males and 65.46% for females.
The male-female literacy gap in 2011 was 16.68 percentage points.
Census literacy is computed for the population aged seven and above.
Kerala recorded the highest literacy rate among states in 2011 and Bihar the lowest.

Study next

Census 2011 headline figures: sex ratio, population density and decadal growthState-level literacy extremes and the rural-urban literacy gapReading a difference in percentage points against a percentage change

Common traps

Choosing the older, wider gap because that number is quoted throughout pre-2011 material.
Comparing female literacy against the national 74.04% instead of against the male rate.

Census 2011 is a fixed supplier of GA numbers.

The rise in literacy over the 2001 Census was asked on 23 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.12, and the female literacy threshold behind the Accelerated Female Literacy Programme on 10 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.15.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.