ABSTRACT
India is a vast multilingual, multicultural, and multireligious country with a population of about 935.7 million people. Its under-five population is probably the largest in the whole world: approximately 117.4 million. The overall literacy rate as of 1995 averaged 52 percent. The female literacy rate is 38 percent, as against a male literacy rate of 64 percent. Economically, India is a poor country, with about 29 percent in urban and 33 percent in rural situations living below the poverty line (UNICEF, 1997). However, culturally, it is a rich country with its own literature, art forms, festivals, toys, and games.
