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60% of India's population is still illiterate . is it true? if it is true. what are the actions taken by the Govt to make india literate?
 Literacy in India is key for socio-economic progress,and the Indian literacy rate grew to 74.04% in 2011 from 12% at the end of British rule in 1947.Although this was a greater than sixfold improvement, the level is well below the world average literacy rate of 84%, and of all nations, India currently has the largest illiterate population.Despite government programmes, India's literacy rate increased only "sluggishly,"and a 1990 study estimated that it would take until 2060 for India to achieve universal literacy at then-current rate of progress. The 2011 census, however, indicated a 2001–2011 decadal literacy growth of 9.2%, which is the slower than the growth seen during the previous decade.

There is a wide gender disparity in the literacy rate in India: effective literacy rates (age 7 and above) in 2011 were 82.14% for men and 65.46% for women. The low female literacy rate has had a dramatically negative impact on family planning and population stabillisation efforts in India. Studies have indicated that female literacy is a strong predictor of the use of contraception among married Indian couples, even when women do not otherwise have economic independence. The census provided a positive indication that growth in female literacy rates (11.8%) was substantially faster than in male literacy rates (6.9%) in the 2001–2011 decadal period, which means the gender gap appears to be narrowing.it is estimated that by the year 2020 over 50% of the illiterate population will live in India .

Government schemes
National Literacy Mission

The National Literacy Mission, launched in 1988, aimed at attaining a literacy rate of 75 per cent by 2007. It imparts functional literacy to non-literates in the age group of 15–35 years. The Total Literacy Campaign is the principal strategy of the NLM for eradication of illiteracy. The Continuing Education Scheme provides a learning continuum to the efforts of the Total Literacy and Post literacy programmes.

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

The Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (Hindi for Total Literacy Campaign) was launched in 2001 to ensure that all children in the 6–14-year age-group attend school and complete eight years of schooling by 2010. An important component of the scheme is the Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative and Innovative Education, meant primarily for children in areas with no formal school within a one kilometre radius. The centrally sponsored District Primary Education Programme, launched in 1994, had opened more than 160,000 new schools by 2005, including almost 84,000 alternative schools.

Non-governmental efforts

The bulk of Indian illiterates live in the country's rural areas, where social and economic barriers play an important role in keeping the lowest strata of society illiterate. Government programmes alone, however well intentioned, may not be able to dismantle barriers built over centuries. Major social reformation efforts are sometimes required to bring about a change in the rural scenario. Several non-governmental organisations such as Pratham, ITC, Rotary Club, Lions Club have worked to improve the literacy rate in India.

Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation

Shantha Sinha won a Magsaysay Award in 2003 in recognition of "her guiding the people of Andhra Pradesh to end the scourge of child labour and send all of their children to school." As head of an extension programme at the University of Hyderabad in 1987, she organised a three-month-long camp to prepare children rescued from bonded labour to attend school. Later, in 1991, she guided her family's Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation to take up this idea as part of its overriding mission in Andhra Pradesh. Her original transition camps grew into full-fledged residential "bridge schools." The foundation's aim is to create a social climate hostile to child labour, child marriage and other practices that deny children the right to a normal childhood. Today the MV Foundation's bridge schools and programmes extend to 4,300 villages.


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