Odisha has a total of 1,01,99,532 illiterate persons and, of them, 69,27,098 are women, informed School and Mass Education Minister in the State Assembly in response to a question of BJP MlA Dilip Ray on Thursday.
According to the Census 2011, the illiterates include 28,96,193 people belonging to Scheduled Caste category and 53,731 of Scheduled Tribe category.
All districts, excepting in Deogarh, have more than one lakh illiterate persons. While above 9 lakh persons are illiterate in Nabarangpur district, more than 8 lakh in Ganjam and more than 7 lakh in Keonhar are illiterates. Sundargarh, Rayagada, Koraput, Keonjhar, Kalahandi and Balangir districts have more than 4 lakh illiterate people each.
While the Minister didn’t give any reply to Ray’s question as to why the literate Mission headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has not met once in the last eight years, he said the proposal for holding a meeting of the mission is under construction.