India made considerable progress in ‘Adult Literacy’ in the last few decades. However, as per the 2011 Census, close to 24 crore adults are yet to attain literacy. The Government’s ‘Saakshar Bharat’ programme, a revised version of NLM launched in 2009, is aimed at increasing adult literacy. Here is a review of the programme. According to Census 2011, only 69.3% of the adults above the age of 15 years in India are literate. In other words, 30.7% of them or close to 24 crore adults are illiterate as a result of numerous social and economic factors persistent in the country. The government of India upon realising the need to educate the adults introduced the National Literacy Mission (NLM) in 1988, aimed at imparting functional literacy to non-literates in the age group of 15 to 35 years. The scheme was later revamped to address its shortcomings and meet the changing demands. Saakshar Bharat Programme, modified version of NLM, was launched more than a decade ago with the objective of reaching 80% literacy level by providing an opportunity to those aged 15 years & beyond and those who are non-literate and non-numerate. In this story, we look at the programme in detail and the related data. 24 Crore adults in India are not literate as per census 2011 As per the Census2011, India’s literacy rate stood at 74% with male literacy at 82.1% and femaleliteracy at 65.5%. However, in the case of adults aged 15 and above, theliteracy rate among men is 78.8% and that among women is 59.3%. As is evidentfrom the chart, the literacy rates of adults (both men and women) has beenincreasing with every census. Despite the progress made, about 24 crore adultsare not literate in India as per the Census 2011. The gender gap interms of adult literacy is observed to be decreasing with time. However, thedisparity in adult literacy is stark between Urban & Rural areas. Literacy rate of urban adults is 82.8% andthat of rural adults is 62.6%. It is also observed that gender disparity in theurban areas is lesser than that in the rural backdrop. Saakshar Bharat was launched in 2009 to improve the literacy rate among Adults On InternationalLiteracy Day which falls on 08 September every year, the then Prime MinisterDr. Manmohan Singh launched the Saakshar Bharat Programme in 2009 during the 11th five year plan. The centrally sponsoredscheme is implemented by the Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL)of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). The nodal agency of thescheme at the national level is the National Literacy Mission Authority. Unlike the previous scheme, Saakshar Bharat offered opportunities for people to continue with their education The objectives ofthe scheme, similar to the erstwhile NLM, include imparting functional reading,writing and mathematical skills which are required in the day to day life, tothose adults who are devoid of any formal education in their childhood due to amultitude of reasons. In addition,Saakshar Bharat also gives them an opportunity to continue their education andoffers skill development programs. To minimise the gender gap, social gap aswell as inter and intra state disparities in literacy levels, prominence hasbeen given to females, people belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribesand other minorities, especially in the rural backdrop. 7.62 crore adults across 410 districts have been educated under the scheme Saakshar Bharat was implemented from October 2009 indistricts with female literacy rate 50% and below based on Census 2001 data. Leftwing extremism affected districts were also included in the programmeirrespective of the literacy rate. The programme had a target to impart basiceducation to at least 7 crore adults including 1.4 crore people belonging to ‘ScheduledCaste’ category and 80 lakh people belonging to ‘Scheduled Tribe’ category. According to numberspresented by MHRD in the Lok Sabha earlier this year, 7.64 crore adultswere certified as literates between August 2010 and March 2018. Of this, UttarPradesh and Bihar together constitute 36%. The programme covered 410 districtsacross 26 states in the country. Kerala, Goa and Mizoram are the three excludedstates. Female literacy rates in these three states are the highest in the country as per Census 2011. Considering the census 2011 numbers and thecoverage of the scheme, around 16 crore adults would still lack literacy. Adult Education Centres have been set up in Gram Panchayats Adult EducationCentres (AEC) or Lok Shiksha Kendras were set up to implement the programme atthe grass root level. In each gram panchayat with a minimum population of 5000,at least one AEC has been established and is led by two paid coordinatorscalled ‘Preraks’.