Literacy is an important indicator of the socio economic development of an area. It
acts as a catalyst for social upliftment enhancing the returns on investments made in almost
every aspects of development effort, be it population control, health, hygiene, environmental
degradation control, empowerment of women and weaker section of the society. The trends in
literacy are indicative of the pace at which the life and economy of a particular society is being
transformed. Rajasthan is predominantly a rural state where education continues to have little
economic and social relevance. Female literacy is also low in urban areas as compared to
male literacy because the cities and towns have a large number of male immigrants who are
educated; towns and cities attract large number of male students. The male-female literacy
difference is witness to be highly variable throughout the state. The present paper is an
attempt to analyze the trends of differential in literacy rate, spatial patterns of urban-rural
differential and the relationship between differential index and selected variables of
development among the districts of Rajasthan.