In the State of Maharashtra, as per 1991 Census, the Scheduled Castes population is I 1 09% and Scheduled Tribes population is 9.27% of the population of the state. The majority of SC and ST people live in rural areas. As against the general literacy rate of 64.87% of the State the literacy rate among SCs and STs are 56.46% and 36.79%, respectively. The female literacy of STs in the State is very low at 24.03% viz-a-viz the female literacy rate of 52.3% of the State as a whole.