Illiteracy means inability of a person to read and write in any language. Amartya Sen described illiteracy as one of ‘unfreedoms’. According to the census report of 2001, a person who can read and write with understanding in any language may be called a literate person and a person who can only read but cannot write is not a literate person.

Illiteracy is both a curse and an impediment to democracy. Illiterates are easily exploited and mislead by politicians and vested interests to realize their goals. The successful working of democracy depends upon political awareness which can be acquired only through education.

The 2011 census report records the literacy rate in Kerala as 94%, Karnataka at 75.36% and Bihar at 61.80%.

1. Lack of Political Awareness: Illiteracy contributes for political apathy. Illiterate masses due to their ignorance and indifferences do not take part in political process. They are not able to understand the importance of vote, they do not understand the idea logies of political parties, their manifestos and the performance of ruling party, election rules, and process.

2. Low Percentage of votes: Since the first general election, the percentage of polling has not crossed 60%. This is due to illiteracy and lack of political awareness. Political legitimacy cannot be achieved to a full extend by low percentage of polling.

3. Money and Muscle Power: The nexus between politicians and businessmen is noticeable. The politicians are tactful enough to get votes from the poor people who are illiterate through dubious means like rigging and booth capturing and threatening the voters using muscle power. This has led to criminalization of politics.

4. Politics of Populism: The voters in India are attracted by politics of populism. Illiteracy and poverty force them to depend upon the facilities of the Government. They fail to understand that the populist programmes bring them into mainstream of the Society. Indulgence in politics of populism makes the people to depend on the Government for everything without becoming creative individuals. This becomes an impediment to national development.

5. Emergence of Dictatorship: When people are not politically conscious, show apathy to vote, an ambitious leader transforms democracy into a dictatorship.