In a letter to all States, the Ministry of Education (MoE) has defined ‘literacy,’ and what it means to achieve ‘full literacy,’ in the light of the renewed push for adult literacy under the New India Literacy Programme (NILP), a five-year programme (2022-27), which aims to onboard one crore learners per year above 15 years across all States and union territories.
In the letter, School Education Secretary Sanjay Kumar has stated that literacy may be understood as the ability to read, write, and compute with comprehension, i.e. to identify, understand, interpret and create along with critical life skills such as digital literacy, financial literacy etc, and full literacy (to be considered equivalent to 100% literacy) will be achieving 95% literacy in a State/UT that may be considered as equivalent to fully literate.
Mr. Kumar further writes that a non-literate person may be considered as literate under the NILP, as per the aforementioned definition when she/he has been declared literate after taking the Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Test (FLNAT).
According to data accessed by The Hindu, in 2023, 39,94,563 adult learners appeared for FLNAT exams conducted in March and September, out of which 36,17,303 learners were certified ‘literate.’
In 2024, FLNAT exam was conducted on March 17, in which 34,62,289 learners appeared, however only 29,52,385 (85.27%) were certified as literate. While the pass percentage in FLNAT hovered between 89.64% to 91.27% in 2023, in 2024 it has dropped a bit lower to 85.27%.
In 2024-25, the MoE has allocated a budget of ₹160 crore for the NILP. According to the latest budget document, only ₹76.41 crore was actually utilised towards the scheme in 2022-23. In 2023-24, the allocation was hiked up to ₹157 crore, but later brought down to ₹100 crore in the revised budget estimate.
Significant challenge
According to the Census 2011, India faces a significant literacy challenge, with 25.76 crore non-literate individuals in the 15 years and above age group, comprising 9.08 crore males and 16.68 crore females. Despite the progress made under the Saakshar Bharat programme, which certified 7.64 crore individuals as literate between 2009-10 and 2017-18, an estimated 18.12 crore adults in India remain non-literate.
The letter also states that non-literate individuals face disadvantages in various aspects of life such as financial transactions, job applications, comprehension of media and technology, understanding of rights and participation in higher productivity sectors.
“I urge upon all States and union territories to strive for Bharat reaching full literacy by 2030 with the ULLAS (NILP) initiative,” Mr. Kumar has written in the letter.
