State post literacy plan in jeopardy

PUNE, July 20: A major chunk of the 14 lakh neo-literates in seven districts of Maharashtra, who participated in the post literacy campaign...

PUNE, July 20: A major chunk of the 14 lakh neo-literates in seven districts of Maharashtra, who participated in the post literacy campaign (PLC) as part of the National Literacy Mission (NLM), face the possibility of being relegated back to illiteracy even as the follow-up programme takes off after a two-year gap.

Even as the State Government has approved of the `Continuing Education Scheme’ (CES) proposed by the Central Government, the next logical step after completion of the post literacy campaign, the ambitious programme is yet to be enforced which is responsible for the two-year gap between the completion of the PLC and the commencement of the next programme. Post literacy campaigns have been completed in Pune, Jalna, Sindhudurg, Nanded, Parbhani, Latur and Wardha for adults, while total literacy campaigns (TLC) have been completed in 15 districts as part of the first phase of the literacy campaign, namely Aurangabad, Jalna, Parbhani, Nanded, Beed, Osmanabad, Sindhudurg, Sangli and Amravati among others with enrollment of approximately 31.92 lakh learners. There are approximately 69.8 lakh illiterates between 15 to 35 years in Maharashtra.

B A More, member secretary of the Maharashtra Rajya Saksharta Parishad and director, Adult Education, Maharashra, termed this phenomenon of relapse of illiteracy as a `universal problem’, explaining that since most of the adults belonged to the working class, they could not afford to avail time from their chores for a regular revision of studies.

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Secondly, finding volunteers to continue with regular classes, especially in rural areas poses a major problem for authorities. To address this problem, the National Literacy Mission Authority, an autonomous wing of the Central Government had proposed the CES.

The CES, an ambitious effort to provide an `information window’ to most neo-literates, envisages setting up large libraries providing reading material, musical instruments besides providing instructors or coordinators to provide information about Central welfare schemes.

While the scheme is already being implemented in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, in Maharashtra, until the GR comes in, nothing can be done, said More, expressing the hope that the issue would come up at this Legislative Assembly session.

The State, meanwhile, is already gearing up for this programme. It has planned for 20,000 learning centres in the State and each centre will handle 1500 to 2000 people.