President Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said that India’s endeavour should be to bring its literacy rate up to match not only the world average but touch the levels attained by the leading nations.
“The time has come to put in renewed vigour and concerted efforts to improve our literacy rate. It has been envisaged that by the end of the 12th Plan, we would achieve 80 per cent literacy and also narrow the gender gap from 16 to 10 percentage points,” he said at a function on the occasion of International literacy Day in the Capital.
“Our ultimate objective should be to bring the literacy rate not only on a par with the world average but up to the levels attained by the leading nations,” Mukherjee said. He however lauded the initiatives taken so far to achieve a four-fold increase in literacy levels from 18 per cent in 1951 to 74 per cent in 2011.
But he noted that the existing gender disparity in literacy levels had to be bridged by devoting attention to the girl child and to women. At the same time, attempts at achieving universal literacy should be complemented by efforts at alleviating poverty, mitigating inequity owing to gender and social category, and improving access to schooling, he said.
“We have to gear up at all levels - national, state, district, block, and gram panchayat. The implementation structure has to be strengthened by involving Government agencies as well as reputed organisations in the non-governmental and private sectors,” he said.
literacy, he said, was a basic human necessity and a cornerstone for all categories of education. The President said that he was happy to note that the International literacy Day being observed in India this year had a special focus on “literacy, peace and development”.
HRD Minister MM Pallam Raju said that the aim of the government under the Saakshar Bharat mission should be to achieve 100 per cent literacy among women in the age group of 15 to 35 years by 2017. There are 20 states that still have a literacy rate of below 80 per cent. The female literacy rate is 58 per cent, he said. Raju on the occasion launched the basic education programme for adults by releasing the learning material for the same. The first copy was received by the President. The Saakshar Bharat Programme, launched in 2009, has seen over two crore adults being certified as literate.