In India , the combined population of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes is 23.6% but Chhattisgarh alone can boast of a significant 44.7% of the ST and SC population. The state has a healthy sex ratio i.e. 989 females per 1000 males, which is next to Kerala. The female literacy rate of Chhattisgarh in the above seven years population was 27.52% in 1991 which later increased to 52.40% in 2005.