State govt looks to achieve 50 lakh literacy target

Kolkata: The state Mass Education and Library Department is determined to educate the remaining six lakh people out of their 50 lakh target in Bengal.

"Our mass education department made a target in 2009 that 50 lakh people should be made literate. Till now, 44 lakh people are able to read and write," said state Mass Education and Library minister Siddiqullah Chowdhury, on the sidelines of the International Literacy Day 2019 programme held at Rabindra Sadan on Sunday. State Legislative Assembly speaker Biman Banerjee, state Fire and Emergency Services minister Sujit Bose and state Minority Affairs and Madrasa Education minister Giasuddin Molla were present at the event as well. According to a 2011 census, nearly 26% of Indians are still illiterate. In Bengal, the figure is nearly 21%. "We are determined to eradicate illiteracy from our country and Bengal," Chowdhury said. He reiterated that his Mass education department runs different types of institutions. "One of the institutions teaches specially-able children. For them, we are imparting education from 4th standard to 12th standard. As per the Educational Statistics report released by MHRD in 2018, the overall literacy rate in India is 69.1%.