Contrary to popular perception, the data in the first-ever report on religion does not show any 'wide variation' in the female literacy rate among different religious groups.

Noting that the highest female literacy rate was among Jains with 90.6 per cent, the 'First Report on Religion' said the next in line were Christians with 76.2 per cent and Sikhs with 63.1 per cent.

Among the Muslims, the litercay rate in women was recorded as 50.1 per cent slightly below the national average of 53.7 per cent. It was slightly better in the case of the Hindus, which was 53.2 per cent, according to the report.

Among Buddhists, the literacy rate among women was 61.7 per cent.

Overall literacy rate for all the religious groups, as revealed again for the first time in 2001 Census, was very encouraging, shattering 'many myths' in circulation earlier when such a dataset was not available for the country as a whole, the report said.

The literacy rate among the Hindus at 65.1 per cent was slightly better than the the national average of 64.8 per cent for all religious groups combined.

Among the Muslims, literacy rate was 59.1 per cent and the highest litercay rate was recorded among the Jains at 94.1 per cent followed by Christians 80.3 per cent, Buddhists at 72.7 per cent and Sikhs at 69.4 per cent, the report said.