President Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said that India should endeavour to bring its literacy rate up to match not only the world average but touch the levels attained by developed nations.
Speaking at a function on the occasion of International Literacy Day he said the time has come to put in renewed vigour and concerted efforts to improve the country’s literacy rate. “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,” he said.
“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.
He 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. However, he noted that the existing gender disparity in literacy levels had to be bridged by devoting attention to the girl child and to women.
“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.
He called for improving the implementation structure at national, state, district, block, and gram panchayat levels. Literacy, he said, was a basic human necessity and a cornerstone for all categories of education. The President said 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 M.M. Pallam Raju said that the aim of the government should be to achieve 100 per cent literacy among women in the age group of 15 to 35 years by 2017. Stressing on the need to redouble the efforts to elevate literacy levels, especially among women, SCs, STs and minorities, he said that the gender gap in 19 states today was still more than 10 per cent.
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.