Literacy rate is one of the key indicators of a country’s development. It influences a person’s daily life and helps her/him perform a range of activities. The enhancement of literacy rate pre-supposes a set of enabling conditions ensuring adequate and equitable opportunities and scope for creative engagement through a system of quality education which reflects the social, economic and political status of respective region. Literacy rate is varying from region to region and it increases with time. The educational system is often found to perpetuate gender inequalities in terms of access, participation and attainment. So, the prime objective of the paper is to study the gender disparity in terms of literacy rate in the states of NER. The present study is based on secondary data, collected from Census of India, 2011 and Assam Human Development Report, 2014. Sopher’s Disparity Index is used to measure for the purpose of analysis. The study clearly demonstrates that the disparity level in literacy rate in case of overall as well as urban and rural sector of the NER states.

Sopher’s Index, Gender Disparity, Literacy Rate, North-East India