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Essay on “Illiteracy in India” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Illiteracy in India

 Essay No. 01

Illiteracy has been the bane of independent India. It is a shame to note that, the country that gave Epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata to the world should, in the let Century turn out to be one among the most illiterate countries of the world. How this has come to be is of course not far to seek. Even in the understanding of a layman, it is clear that India has remained so very illiterate because it has, for centuries been slave to someone or the other. The rulers, whoever they may have been never wanted the Indians to be educated as, an educated mass of men would be difficult to reign, and so they never wanted them to raise their heads, and so, kept them away from the light of education. So much of course can be understood but, the sad story of the Indian masses is that even their own rulers, the Indians had no different attitude, they also wanted the Indians to remain mostly illiterate for much the same reason as the foreigners had wished. Just like the foreign rulers the Indian rulers also thought that an educated public may not be so easy to control so they also followed the track laid by their predecessors. Besides this, if the masses remained uneducated, any kind of manipulation could be easily managed in the favour of the rulers. Thus, since the Indian rulers also wanted to keep the Indian masses away from the light of knowledge, the result is for all of us to see that, even after fifty years of independence, India is still lagging behind the world in its ratio of educated / literate and the illiterate. 

This goes without saying that, educated gentry is far more difficult to handle and to satisfy than an uncouth uneducated lot. For this simple reason the Indian rulers deemed it fit to keep education a far off dream for the majority, and the image that the foreigners had established has been maintained by our Indian rulers for simple selfish reasons that are obvious. For this reason I feel that, the rate of literacy in India is no surprise. This has been the definite policy of the Indian rulers just to suit their vicious designs, and their own inefficient policies. Illiterate masses can be led like sheep and goats very easily however and wherever they are taken. They can be very easily aroused on any emotional issues, they can be easily convinced into understanding and thinking as their rulers want them to. If the masses were to be educated it would not have been so easy for the politician to do what and how he wants to do on any issue. People would have to be convinced with genuine reasoning to the correctness of all that is being done or being planned. For this simple reason, even the dawn of the 21st, Century finds India listed among the countries with the lowest ratio of education.

 

Now, after a little over fifty years, the Government has seen and understood the folly of such a lame policy of education. Now the Government is re-scheduling its literacy programmes and making a mark of the fundamental right of each resident of India to the right of education. If the masses had not been kept illiterate, they would have in so many years, raised a hue and cry about their right to education and the Governments of the past years would not have found it all so very smooth sailing. However, at least now the Government has awakened to the fact and need of correct education but, let us remember that the decades already lost cannot come back or regained. For, to complete the task in hand and to manage the huge backlog makes the job rather cumbersome and time consuming, besides being difficult to achieve.

It is hoped that, if the direction taken is continued we will in the course of another decade be higher on the grade of educated/ literate countries.

 

 Essay No. 02

Illiteracy in India

Illiteracy is a social problem in India. Illiteracy is the state of being not able to read or write. A. country’s progress depends much or literacy. Illiteracy is a curse on mankind in this age of science. An illiterate person doesn’t understand value of life. He is unaware of the modern day developments.

34 percent of the population of India is illiterate. According to the Global Education Monitoring Report of 2005, India ranks 106 out of the 127 countries. The average adult literacy rate is 76 percent for developing countries and 81.7 percent global the adult literacy rate in India is 61.3 percent.

But over the decades, literacy rates have shown a considerable improvement. The total literacy rate in 1951 was only 18.33 percent. It rose to 52.21 percent in 1991 an: 65.4 7ercent in 2001. According to the 2001 census report, the male literacy rate is 75.85 percent and the female literacy rate is 54.16 percent.

The rate of illiteracy is the highest among the agricultural, laborers. The main cause of illiteracy is poverty. Poor parents cannot afford to give education to their children. These children work in industries. They are subject to various types of exploitations. The rate of child laborers very high in India 

Before 1976, education was the responsibility of the States. After the Constitutional Amendment of 1976, the Central Government accepts a larger responsibility in this field. The Central Government monitors educational policies and programmes. The most-notable of these are the National Policy of Education (NPE), 1986 and the Programme of Action (POA), 1986 as updated in 1992.

These policies bring about uniformity in education and make adult education programmes a mass movement. They lay special emphasis on education of girls, establishment of schools like Navodaya Vidyalaya in each district, encouraging sports, etc.

The Parliament has passed the Constitution. Amendment Act in 2002. This Act has made elementary education a fundamental right for children in the age group of 6-14 years. The Shiksha Sarva Abhiyan (SSA) covers the entire country and addresses the needs of 192 million children in 11 lakh habitations. It seeks to open new schools in areas which do not have schooling facilities.

Literacy is essential ‘for productivity. Illiterate farmers and workers cannot make proper use of the modern technologies both in the agriculture and the industrial sectors. Children are the asset of the nation. They are the citizens of tomorrow. If they remain illiterate, nothing good can be expected from them in the near future.

Literate people have a creative mind to think. They can choose a career. They have more employment opportunities as compared to the illiterates.

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