Adult Literacy in India and Its Implications
The Directive Principal of State Policy to provide for primary education to all children has failed in its objectives. At present, almost half of India's population is still illiterate. Through the ages, the illiterate masses have been exploited. The present day politicians have exploited them for their perverted interests.
This has resulted in the formation of unstable coalition governments at the Centre. Social evils like drug abuse, consumption of alcohol and child labour are a result of the illiteracy among the massed. Kerala has concentrated towards mass education and has, thus, controlled many social evils.
With the nation hovering around the 1 billion mark and around 48 per cent of its population still illiterate, there is hardly a ray of hope for India. In the near future, the rising illiterate population would further impede 2 the growth and development of the nation.
The Directive Principles of State Policy inter alia provide that the State shall endeavour to provide for free and compulsory education to all children below the age of 14 years, within a period of ten years from the commencement of the Constitution of India.
However, because of lack of resources and foresight among the politicians, this dream has never been realized. The prevalence of illiteracy among the masses has made them vulnerable to exploitation, as they are unaware of their rights and privileges.
The Indian masses have through the age remained illiterate and naive because education had been the privilege of only the Brahmins and the upper classes. The underprivileged looked up to them, but never envied them. On the contrary, the masses resigned themselves to their fate.
They habituated themselves into living in abject poverty with denial of basic amenities for the sustenance 3 of life, exploitation and humiliation. Illiteracy, unawareness and desperation of the masses are exploited by the politicians to realize their perverted 4 interests. They are gullible and get carried away by the false promises of the politicians.
The gross intolerance shown by the literate class towards them has made the politicians turn to the masses. The ruling elite 5 has further divided them on the lines of caste, creed and religion and initiated caste politics in the country. The emergence of caste based politics has led to the shooting into prominences of several regional and caste- based parties.
This has resulted in the debacle 5 of the democratic working of the country, with the formation of successive coalition governments at the Centre which have failed to register their full term. In a way we could say that the political instability of the country is a direct result of the prevalence of illiteracy among the electorate.
Social evils like drug abuse, consumption of alcohol and child labour are a result of the illiteracy among the masses. Being uneducated, therefore, unaware of the long-term implications of their acts, they indulge in several addictions. Such activities exhaust them physically and mentally which leads to their disinterest in work and later cause unemployment.
The man being economically drained, the family sets about to find alternative methods of substance. The womenfolk are exploited as unorganized labour and are underpaid than their male counterparts. The children are forced to work as child labourers where they are subjected to hard labour and less wages.
Thus, the poverty of the masses never mitigates but persists. The upper class has always looked down upon the less privileged people as the scum 7 of the country and the politicians have never given them their due, Welfare schemes intended for the poor are never successful because the benefits never reach them. They have continued to remain susceptible to exploitation through the centuries.
States in the cow-belt region of India, namely Bihar, Madhya Pradeshd, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, have 48 per cent of the total illiterated population in the country. The literacy rate was put at 52.2% in the year 1991. In the rural sector the statistics are dismal. The status of the women in many parts of the country is very low as they are denied all privileges.
Including education this has led to the failure of the efforts put in by the Government to achieve total adult literacy. The saying that “if you educate a man, you educate one person, but if you educate a woman, you educate a whole family” does not make any significance to the massed. States like Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have tried to deal with primary education first so that the future electorates do not remain illiterate.
The state of Kerala had concentrated its efforts on mass education of its population than setting up colleges and universities which cater to the literate class only. The result is that literacy has become universal in the state infant mortality has fallen considerably and the fertility rate is the lowest in India. The practice of child labour in the state is on the decline and exploitation of the unorganized labour is hardly witnessed.
The Government launched the National Literacy Mission (NLM) with the objective of achieving total adult literacy in 1988. The objective was to achieve total adult literacy among 80 million adults in the age group of 15-35 by the year 1995.
The target was furthered in 98-99 to benefit 100 million adults and to achieve total literacy by 2005.Since the inception of the scheme. 57,96 million adults have been made literate. Under Total Literacy Campaign, 80 million people in 417 districts across the country have acquired literacy while Post Literacy Campaigns have been undertaken for 18.44 million peopled residing in 178 districts.
Evening schools are imparting education to those people who find it difficult to attend formal schools because of their occupations. Men, women and children are encouraged to join such schools where they are initiated into learning, after shedding their inhibitions.
For furthering their education, they could seek admission into the Open School or National Open School (NOS).The former was setup by the CBSE in 1979 for the propagation of distance education among those aspirants who are unable to attend a regular school.
The latter was formed in 1989 to benefit those students who would like to pursue vocational studies along with academic education. Judging from the increased in enrolment of students to the various course, it seems that the Literacy Mission has become successful in achieving adult literacy to the desired level.
The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) was launched with the intention of providing degree programmes along with vocational education under the distance education scheme. IGNOU has emerged as one of the largest distance educational net works in the developing countries. Enrolments to various courses from the rural areas have been witnessed recently which would aid in employment.
Despite government's efforts, a lot in the field of adult literacy, needs to be done. Slogan like `Each one, teach one' was rephrased to `Each one, teach five' with the increased in population. The society, as a whole, should contribute towards achieving the targets.
Targets like total adult literacy can be achieved only by community participation. The programmes of the NOS and IGNOU are beamed on television during odd hours, especially when the intended viewers are involved in their occupations. Hence, the desired result has not been achieved. Such, programmes should be beamed in the afternoon or late evenings to benefit the womenfolk and the mean folk.
Volunteers should take the aid of other audio/visual mediums like folk dance, puppetry, folk songs or street plays which demonstraste the benefits of education. Such mediums could also be used to impart education and make learning a fun.
The women could be trained to utilize their spare time by initiating them into co-operative activities like weaving, making candles, handicrafts, papads, and pickles. This could help the volunteers lure those who are reluctant to join the literacy programme.
Non-Governmental Organization should also take part in the literacy mission to help the government in achieving its targets sooner than proposed. Though total adult literacy is a stupendous task, we must contribute our bit in achieving the desired targets.