Arrange the districts in ascending order of female literacy rate and choose the correct option:
- (a)Uttarkashi, U.S. Nagar, Chamoli, Nainital
- (b)U.S. Nagar, Haridwar, Nainital, Uttarkashi
- (c)Nainital, Chamoli, U.S. Nagar, Uttarkashi
- (d)Uttarkashi, U.S. Nagar, Nainital, Chamoli
Correct — A, Uttarkashi, U.S. Nagar, Chamoli, Nainital.
The stem asks for ascending order, so the district with the lowest female literacy comes first. On Census 2011 figures the four districts read: Uttarkashi 62.35%, U.S. Nagar (Udham Singh Nagar) 64.45%, Chamoli 72.32%, Nainital 77.29%. That sequence is exactly Uttarkashi, U.S. Nagar, Chamoli, Nainital, option (a).
The idea to carry away: female literacy has its own ranking, separate from total literacy. Uttarkashi's total literacy (75.81%) is above U.S. Nagar's (73.10%), yet on female literacy Uttarkashi is the lowest district in the state, because its male rate (88.79%) runs far ahead of its female rate.
Chamoli and Nainital are both hill districts, but Nainital records the higher female rate of the two, 77.29% against 72.32%, so Nainital closes the ascending sequence.
- (b)U.S. Nagar, Haridwar, Nainital, Uttarkashi — This puts Uttarkashi last, as if it had the highest female literacy of the four, when at 62.35% it has the lowest. The first three names are in correct ascending order, U.S. Nagar 64.45%, Haridwar 64.79%, Nainital 77.29%, so that fragment is sound; the sequence fails the moment Uttarkashi is placed above Nainital.
- (c)Nainital, Chamoli, U.S. Nagar, Uttarkashi — This is the correct sequence read backwards: Nainital 77.29%, Chamoli 72.32%, U.S. Nagar 64.45%, Uttarkashi 62.35%. It is the right answer to the same four districts arranged in descending order of female literacy. The stem says ascending, so the lowest district, Uttarkashi, must open the sequence, not close it.
- (d)Uttarkashi, U.S. Nagar, Nainital, Chamoli — The bottom pair is right, but the top pair is swapped: Nainital's female literacy (77.29%) is above Chamoli's (72.32%), so Chamoli must come before Nainital. Chamoli does lead Nainital on male literacy, 93.40% against 90.07%, which is the one reading on which this top pair holds; the stem asks about female literacy.
The Census counts as literate any person aged 7 or above who can read and write with understanding in any language. The literacy rate is literates divided by the population aged 7 and above, as a percentage; children under 7 are excluded from both the numerator and the denominator.
The female literacy rate applies the same formula to females alone. In Uttarakhand the male rate exceeds the female rate by roughly 11 to 26 percentage points depending on the district, so a female ranking and a total ranking do not coincide. 'Ascending' means the smallest value comes first.
Uttarakhand's Census 2011 profile: literacy 78.82%, male 87.40%, female 70.01%, sex ratio 963. The four districts in the stem span the state's range on female literacy, from Uttarkashi at the bottom to Nainital, second only to Dehradun (78.54%), at the top.
The two plains districts, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar, together with two Garhwal hill districts, Uttarkashi and Tehri Garhwal, form the low group on female literacy, with rates between 62% and 65%. The other hill districts of Garhwal and Kumaon sit between 68% and 73%, and Dehradun and Nainital stand above 77%.
- Census 2011 female literacy: Uttarkashi 62.35%, Udham Singh Nagar 64.45%, Chamoli 72.32%, Nainital 77.29%; ascending order is Uttarkashi, U.S. Nagar, Chamoli, Nainital.
- Haridwar, the extra name in option (b), had female literacy of 64.79% in 2011, just above Udham Singh Nagar.
- Uttarakhand as a whole in Census 2011: literacy 78.82%, male 87.40%, female 70.01%, sex ratio 963.
- Dehradun (78.54%) had the highest female literacy among the 13 districts in 2011; Uttarkashi (62.35%) had the lowest.
- On total literacy the low end changes: Udham Singh Nagar (73.10%) and Haridwar (73.43%) are below Uttarkashi (75.81%).
- Three different districts hold the three 'lowest' tags for 2011: Haridwar on male literacy (81.04%), Udham Singh Nagar on total, Uttarkashi on female.
- Uttarkashi's male literacy of 88.79% against a female rate of 62.35% gives a gap of about 26 points, among the widest in the state.
- A literacy rate is calculated on population aged 7 and above; the stem names no census year, and the figures behind option (a) are Census 2011.
Rows run from lowest to highest; the four highlighted rows read Uttarkashi, U.S. Nagar, Chamoli, Nainital, which is option (a).
- Ranking by total literacy: on that measure Udham Singh Nagar (73.10%) and Haridwar (73.43%) fall below Uttarkashi (75.81%), which misplaces Uttarkashi wherever the indicator is female literacy.
- Reading 'ascending' as 'descending': option (c) is the exact mirror of the correct sequence, so the direction word alone separates two internally consistent orders.
- Assuming hill districts outrank plains districts on female literacy: Uttarkashi, a hill district, sits below the plains districts Udham Singh Nagar and Haridwar.
- Treating Chamoli and Nainital as interchangeable hill districts: five points separate them on female literacy, and option (d) is built by swapping them.
The indicator, female literacy under Census 2011, is held fixed while the district names move: a single superlative (which district was lowest, as in Q75 of this same paper), a four-district arrangement in ascending or descending order, or a district paired with a rank inside a statement.
In this same paper, Q20 used the identical arrange-the-districts device with the Scheduled Tribe share instead. So the working method is to fix two things before touching the names: which indicator, and which direction.
UKPSC_2024_PRE_GSI_Q752024Same paper, same indicator and same census: it asks only for the district with the lowest female literacy, and its keyed answer, Uttarkashi, is the district that opens this question's ascending sequence. That item needs one superlative; this one needs the relative order of four districts.
UKPSC_2024_PRE_GSI_Q202024Same paper and same arrange-the-districts device, but keyed to descending order and on the Scheduled Tribe share of population, not literacy; U.S. Nagar and Chamoli appear in both option sets with different ranks.
UKPSC_2023_MAINS_UKPCSMainsEco2023_Q132023Same Census 2011 district table for Uttarakhand, but a Mains descriptive item on the top two districts by total literacy, not female literacy, and it asks for the rates themselves.
UPPSC_2018_PRE_GSI_Q1052018Same indicator, female literacy under Census 2011, but for Uttar Pradesh and as a single lowest-district superlative rather than an ordering.
UPSC_1997_GS1_Q121997Same device, ordering units by female literacy, but the units are states, the data is the 1991 Census, and the order asked is descending.
RPSC_2024_PRE_Prelims2024_Q1022024Same arrange-the-districts device on a literacy indicator, but for Rajasthan, on total rather than female literacy, with five districts in descending order.
- practice — not a real PYQ
As per Census 2011, which district of Uttarakhand recorded the highest female literacy rate?
- (a)Nainital
- (b)Dehradun
- (c)Pauri Garhwal
- (d)Chamoli
Answerb — Dehradun, at 78.54%, is the highest. Nainital (77.29%) is second; Pauri Garhwal (72.60%) and Chamoli (72.32%) are well behind. - practice — not a real PYQ
Arrange the following districts of Uttarakhand in descending order of female literacy rate (Census 2011): Haridwar, Dehradun, Almora, Chamoli
- (a)Dehradun, Chamoli, Almora, Haridwar
- (b)Dehradun, Almora, Chamoli, Haridwar
- (c)Chamoli, Dehradun, Almora, Haridwar
- (d)Dehradun, Chamoli, Haridwar, Almora
Answera — Dehradun 78.54%, Chamoli 72.32%, Almora 69.93%, Haridwar 64.79%. Option (b) swaps Chamoli and Almora; (c) puts Chamoli above Dehradun; (d) puts Haridwar above Almora. - practice — not a real PYQ
Consider the following statements about Census 2011 data for Uttarakhand: 1. The district with the lowest total literacy rate is also the district with the lowest female literacy rate. 2. The female literacy rate of Uttarakhand was higher than the all-India female literacy rate. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a)1 only
- (b)2 only
- (c)Both 1 and 2
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2
Answerb — Statement 1 is wrong: the lowest total literacy is Udham Singh Nagar's (73.10%), while the lowest female literacy is Uttarkashi's (62.35%). Statement 2 is right: Uttarakhand's female rate of 70.01% was above the all-India female rate of about 65%.