Every issue that our society faces is like a link of a chain.

Each issue is connected

to another, either directly or indirectly. The chain of issues in this society that we
live in, the strongest link of that chain is illiteracy. Illiteracy is the mother of all
issues as it gives birth to many other issues like poverty, unemployment, child
labor, female feticide, population burst and many more.

It is very hard to digest that the land of the Vedas is one of the countries with the
highest illiteracy levels and shows the inability of our government to utilize
programs like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and National Literacy Mission. Even
countries like Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand and the like have achieved,
in lesser time, a much better percentage of literacy. Literacy is a reasonably good
indicator of development in a society.

Spread and diffusion of literacy is generally associated with essential trait of

today’s civilization such as modernization, urbanization, industrialization,
communication and commerce. This fact can be clarified as all the developed
countries like America and Canada have very low illiteracy rates, whereas
countries like India, Turkey and Iran have a very high rate of illiteracy. World
Bank studies have established the direct and functional relationship between
literacy and productivity on the one hand and literacy and the overall quality of
human life on the other.

A person aged seven and above, who can both read and write with any
understanding in any language, is treated as literate. As per 2001 Census, the
overall literacy rate of India is 65.38%. The difference between the highest and the
lowest literacy rate in India is very high. Kerala has the highest literacy rate which
is 90.92 %, while Bihar has the lowest with 47.53 %.

Illiteracy in India is characterized by wide gaps between the urban and rural
populations. The rural population depends mainly on agriculture and the rate of
illiteracy is high, while the urban population is more of the ‘employee class’ and
also more educated. Even amongst the male and female population, there is a wide
disparity in literacy. The male literacy rate is 75.96% and female literacy rate is
54.28%. The social system in India promotes education for the male gender while
the female population, especially in the deep interiors of the country, is kept away
from schools.

Several efforts have been made on part of the government to deal with illiteracy.
The National Policy of Education -1986, declared that the whole nation must
pledge itself to the work of eradicating illiteracy, particularly in the 15-35 age
group. The National Literacy Mission came into being in 1988 and started striving
to involve all sections of the community in the literacy endeavour. The 1992
Education Policy envisaged free and compulsory elementary education of
satisfactory quality to all children up to the age of 14 before India entered the 21st
Century.

The Supreme Court in its 1993 ruling held that children had a fundamental right to
free education. Ex – President A.P.J Abdul Kalam gave his assent to the
Constitution (83rd Amendment) Bill, 2000, and the “right to education” was
incorporated in the Constitution as a fundamental right. The country had failed to
implement the provisions of Article 45, providing for compulsory and free
education of children up to 14 years of age within 10 years from the
commencement of the Constitution.

India is developing but at a very slow rate, this is not the fault of a corrupt
government; it is due to this problem of illiteracy only. Literacy enables a person to
think rationally, to be understanding, to be more responsible and to make his/her
own decisions. A literate person is aware of all his fundamental rights and duties

Illiteracy can bring down even the most powerful nations down, so if we are to
become a developed nation, the government should first remove the problem of
illiteracy by introducing effective programs with proper implementation and
budget.

Not only the government, but every literate citizen should contribute in battling
with the demon of illiteracy. Our motto should be “each one teach one”, if we are
to become a developed nation. One of the initiatives is “Teach India”, whose aim is
to provide a platform to educated Indians to provide assistance in basic education
to the unprivileged children. “Teach India” will connect educated individuals with
the specialist education providers