President calls for fight against female illiteracy

Pointing out that gender disparity in literacy was a challenge, President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday pitched for steps to fight illiteracy among women and girls, besides asserting that India’s objective should not be only to bring “the literacy rate on a par with the world average but to the levels attained by leading societies.”

Speaking on the occasion of International Literacy Day, the President said, “Today, more than 67 years after our Independence, where are we? The literacy rate has increased by four times from 1 per cent in 1951 to about 74 per cent in 2011. Despite this, our literacy level is below the world average of 84 per cent.”

On female literacy, Mukherjee said the government would seek to reduce the gender gap from 16 to 10 percentage points, even as the country has set a target of 80 per cent literacy by the end of the 12th Plan.

“Gender disparity in literacy is another important challenge. As we have been told, male and female literacy rates are 80.89 and 64.64 percent respectively. We need to do much better… I was glad to note that the National Literacy Mission has enhanced its focus on female literacy,” he said.