Poor show forces govt to get its act together on literacy front

BHOPAL: Taking a serious view of its slipping to 28th position in the country in literacy in 2011 census, the state is now gearing for a war against illiteracy and aiming to impart functional literacy to all unlettered persons of over 15 years of age.
Efforts have begun to identify the districts where the centre-state funded ‘Saakshar Bharat’, a national programme is to be implemented by constituting literary committees up to panchayat level in 42 districts latest by November this year, said a spokesman of Rajya Shiksha Kendra (RSK) spokesman.
The programme will not cover top eight districts were female literacy is high in the state while the focus will be on those districts where female literacy is low. The scheme aims to raise state’s minimum literacy rate to 80%, targeting women, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and minorities.
The literacy rates of state’s 10 districts are above the national average; with Indore has the highest number of literates and Alirajpur being the lowest. Jabalpur, Indore, Bhopal, Balaghat and Gwalior are the top five literacy districts while Alirajpur, Jhabua, Barwani, Sheopur and Dhar being the bottom five districts.
Considering the literacy rate by sex, as per 2011 census, Bhopal district has the highest female literacy rate of 76.6% whereas Indore district has the highest male literacy rate of 89.2%. Tribal district of Alirajpur—which also has the country’s lowest total literacy rate of 37.2 %--has the lowest male literacy rate of 43.6% as well as the lowest female literacy rate of 31.0% in the state.