Literacy Efforts in India

This article highlights literacy efforts in India over the past few decades. Failure to universalize primary education, grounded as it is in complex socioeconomic issues, has had serious implications for planning universal literacy. Program delivery hitherto rested with the official hierarchy and included limited participation from the general population. Where such participation did occur, the programs failed due to insufficient learning levels or insufficient facilities for continuing education. Through use of new strategies, such as microplanning and minimum levels of learning, India is attempting to universalize access, participation, and achievement at the primary level. Simultaneously, the National Literacy Mission is adopting a systematically planned campaign approach to literacy through mass mobilization and innovative learning techniques that emphasizes predetermined learning levels. The value of literacy can be truly harnessed only if literacy skills are retained and applied and if literacy contributes to social change. India has learned from past trials, is conscious of the gravity of the problem, and is moving ahead with new vision.