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Meeting after a gap of seven years, the Council of National Literacy Mission Authority has decided to target its campaign this year in 150 districts which have the lowest literacy rates in the country. The majority of these districts are located in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan. Special time bound literacy drive would be started in these 150 districts on September 8th on the occasion of International Literacy Day.
The Council which met under the Chairmanship of Human Resource Development Minister, Shri Arjun Singh, here yesterday, discussed the manner in which the goal of achieving 75 per cent literacy could be achieved by the year 2007. It favoured the convergence of various programmes such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan , the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) of Department of Women and Child Development, the Nehru Yuvak Kendras and National Service Scheme of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, programmes of Khadi and Village Industries Commission and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to achieve the goals.
Addressing the Council, Shri Arjun Singh said that the initiatives taken by Rajiv Gandhi to increase literacy in the country by putting the programme on a mission mode in 1988 has borne fruit to a great extent. The Census of 2001 shows that the literacy rate for all persons has increased from 52.21 per cent in 1991 to 64.8 per cent in 2001. Commendable progress has been achieved in the age groups of 15-24 and 15-35 of which the literacy rates stand at 76.43 per cent and 71.03 per cent respectively. A significant feature of the Census is that female literacy has increased by 14.4 per cent. The increase in the literacy rate of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has been to the tune of 17.3 per cent and 7.5 per cent respectively. This is a benchmark against which further progress will now have to be achieved, Shri Singh said. He noted that the meetings of NLMA Council was not held for seven years and assured that it will now be held twice in a year.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Shri M.A.A. Fatmi, Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Smt. Kanti Singh, Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Shri Sunil Dutt, Chairperson of National Commission for Women Ms. Girija Vyas and Education Ministers from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Orissa and Assam. The meeting was also attended by Members of Parliament, eminent educationists and representatives of NGOs.
SK:SPS:NC
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