In news- Every year, International Literacy Day 2021 is celebrated on September 8, 2021 to raise awareness and concern for literacy problems that exist in India as well as on the global level.
About International Literacy day-
- This special day was declared by UNESCO in 1966, at the 14th session of UNESCO’s General Conference.
- In the year 1967, International Literacy Day was celebrated for the first time.
- The aim of the founders was to remind people about the importance of literacy in terms of respect and human rights.
- This year’s theme is ‘Literacy for a human-centred recovery: Narrowing the digital divide‘.
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 has one of its targets ensuring all young people achieve literacy and numeracy and that adults, who lack these skills are given the opportunity to acquire them.
India’s literacy-
- In India, as per the last census in 2011, a total of 74.04 per cent are literate, an increase of 9.2 percent from the last decade (2001-11).
- The country will take another 50 years to achieve universal literacy, which is 2060, as per UNESCO.
- In the 75th round, 2020, the National Survey of India published a report on ‘Household Social Consumption: Education in India’, as per which, the literacy rate stood at an aggregate of 77.7 percent.
- The highest literacy rate was achieved by Kerala, followed by Delhi and Uttarakhand.
- The lowest rate went to Andhra Pradesh.
Source: Indian Express
