Spatial Pattern and Differential in Literacy: A Case Study of Rural Urban Fringe of Faizabad City Sadaf*, Munir Abdul** *Research Scholar, Department of Geography, A.M.U., Aligarh **Professor, Department of Geography, A.M.U., Aligarh Online published on 19 January, 2017. Abstract Low literacy and disparity in the literacy between male-female, between rural-urban, and between young and aged population are one of the most important issue in the developing countries of the world. India as a developing country is not only facing the problem of low literacy but also facing the wide disparity between male-female and between rural- urban literacy. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the spatial variation in the literacy rate, malefemale literacy differential, and changes in male-female literacy as well as in total literate population of rural urban fringe of Faizabad city. The study is based on the secondary sources of data obtaining from the Primary Census Abstract (2001, 2011), Census of India. The study reveals that highest growth of male as well as female literacy and low male -female literacy differential is found in primary fringe in comparison to secondary and rural fringe. Literacy rate is continuously increasing from 2001 to 2011 in rural urban fringe, but literacy rate is most significantly increasing in primary fringe than secondary and rural fringe. Female literacy rate has much improved than the male population from 2001 to 2011 in rural urban fringe. High literacy, less male-female literacy differential in primary fringe is because of various reasons: - 1) influence of the city 2) nearness of the city 3) Improving the educational facilities 4) Increasing accessibility 5) Increasing awareness. The study concluded that there is an inverse relationship between distance from the city and literacy rate. Top Keywords Literacy, Differential, Rural-urban fringe, Urbanization and Disparity. Top |