Manipur lag behind others in literacy campaign

Imphal, May 31: Even though the "Total Literacy Campaign" launched by the National Literacy Mission under the Ministry of Human Resource Development has begun in full swing in all the State of the country, Manipur has not been able to make much headway with the campaign being properly implemented only in three/four dists of the State, said a source. It may be noted here that the total literacy campaign has been launched by the Central Govt with the primary aim of educating the illiterate persons of the country between the ages of 15 and 35. The main objective of the campaign is to obtain 75% literacy rate in the country by the year 2007. Sources further stated that the campaign was implemented in the State last year with the State providing Rs 53.5 lakhs as its share and the Ministry of Human Resource Development releasing a sum of Rs 1.53 crores out of the total sum of Rs 4.14 crores earmarked for the campaign. It also added that the remaining sum would be released only when State Govt submits the utilization certificate informing that 75 % of the campaign has been accomplished in the State. Funds for all the nine dists of the State for implementing the campaign have been released through the DCs of the dists who have also been appointed as the chairman of the Dist Literacy Mission Authority, added the source. Informing that the campaign is being carried out very successfully in the three dists of Senapati, Imphal East and Imphal West, sources said that utilization certificate of the three dist will be sent to the Union Ministry within a short period by the Directorate of Adult Education. Meanwhile the campaign Tamenglong is yet to begin at Tamenglong dist after the cross demand draft cheque which was send to the Tamenglong dist for withdrawing the funds has been missing after its arrival at the Dist HQ, said the source. According to guidelines laid down by the Total Literacy Mission, the campaign is being conducted by providing education to illiterate persons in every locality or village by a volunteer appointed by the authorities concerned. Stating that the State Govt has been instructed to complete the campaign within ten months, sources said that the first three months have been allotted for preparing for the campaign while six months for undertaking classes and the remaining one month for compiling the reports of the campaign. Sources however stated that it is very likely that the campaign would be completed in time due to frequent transfers of DCs and variations in timing while releasing funds to the various dist of the State. Meanwhile the Central Govt has already approved for launching a Post Literacy programme within a short period once the literacy campaign is completed. It may be noted here that as per the 2001 census the literacy rate in the State is 76.40%.