By IANS
New Delhi : Voicing concern over India being home to the largest number of illiterates in the world, President Pratibha Devisingh Patil Saturday urged that women’s literacy and education be treated as “priority” for the beneficial effect to be felt by society.
Speaking at the International Literacy Day Celebration here in the capital, Patil said: “India is home to the world’s largest number of illiterates and this is a matter of great concern. India accounts for 20 percent of the world’s out-of-school children and 35 percent adult illiterates.
“When such a large number of the population remains outside the pale of literacy and education, it makes the task of development more complex and daunting,” she said.
“Women’s literacy and education has to be made a priority. If we make women literate, they will be self-reliant and the beneficial impact on society will be manifold.”
She, however, hailed India’s progress in the last 60 years in the field.
“We have made tremendous progress in literacy in the last century. In 1901, India had an abysmally low literacy rate of 5.35 percent, at the time of Independence literacy had risen to only 18.33 percent. But in 2001, the literacy rate had risen substantially to 64.84 percent.
“This is considerable progress, but there are still millions in our country without basic literary skills.”
The president, however, pointed out that India is home to some of the best engineering and management institutions in the world.
“Every year at least 30 lakh (3 million) graduates and 7 lakh (700,000) post-graduates are added to its knowledge capital. India has one of the largest manpower of computer specialists and also one of the largest body of English speaking IT professionals in the world,” she said.
The president added that at the Millennium Development Summit held in New York in 2000, world leaders agreed on a global partnership to work collectively for eradicating poverty, hunger, disease, ignorance and improving the lives of people. They adopted specific goals.
“One of the Millennium Development Goals is the achievement of universal primary education by 2015 and within the context of the goal on gender equality, the target is to eliminate gender disparity in education.
“2015 is only eight years away.”
Globally, there are still 77 million primary school age children who are not enrolled in schools and 771 million adults who do not have basic literacy skills. The proportion of women who are not literate is very high.
Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, the president said: “illiteracy is our sin and shame and must be liquidated.
“Eradicating illiteracy is important for the success of our efforts to eradicate poverty and ignorance.
“I am confident that with the combined efforts of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (Education for All) for children and a revamped National Literacy Mission for adults, Gandhiji’s dream of eradicating the scourge of illiteracy and our goal of creating a knowledge society will be very much within our reach.”