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Abstract
The growth of literacy from 12% at the end of British rule to 75% in the census of 2011 the country has registered a greater than six-fold improvement but with current rate it would take until 2060 to achieve universal literacy. The Government of India along with states executed successful programmes to boost literacy rate, it needs deliberate steps to engage the various communities/agencies to succeed effectively with purpose. In globalisation the bright prospect of literacy demands policy intervention required for accelerating the expected results in sphere of literacy.
Keywords: Literacy, Mission, Planning, Implementation, Status.
Position Around Independence
In India's pre and post independence period, the main information on literacy was collected from censuses. In all the censuses, besides data on literacy, additional information was also collected. In 1872 the information about youths up to age 20 attending schools, college or under private tuition was recorded. In the census of 1881 the information was collected whether the individuals were under instruction or not, and if not, whether they were able to read and write. In the 1891 census, besides the information regarding the language in which the person was literate, the foreign language known was also recorded. From 1901 to 1941, the censuses contained an additional question whether the literate knew English or not. Information on the standard of education was collected for the first time in the 1941 census, and it was asked in every subsequent census. In fact, the Indian idea of education is historically based on what had been cultural literacy, an age-old folkloristic phenomenon, rarely found in subaltern societies elsewhere. The colonial educational setup, for long divergent, and later parallel to the local community-based systems, has now been taken to be the only viable system of educating the child for the postmodern socio-economic model. The gradual growth rate of free India reflects the significant steps independent India has taken to create a more literate society. For example, in 1901, the crude literacy rate was an insignificant 5.35 per cent. In 1951, this was still a dismal 16.67 per cent. In contrast with an 11.32 percentage point increase between 1901 and 1951, the crude literacy rate rose by 48.22 points between 1951 and 2011 with the 1991-2001 decade registering...