M A I N   N E W S

A Tribune Special
Haryana shows no interest in adult female literacy
Not a penny from Rs 1.2-crore Central grant used last year
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 15
Already in the dock for the lowest gender ratio and honour killings perpetuated by the khap panchayats, Haryana is now displaying acute official apathy towards female literacy, a cause which the UPA Government espoused in September 2009 when the Prime Minister launched the Sakshar Bharat Mission to educate 60 million illiterate women (and 10 million illiterate men) across India by March 31, 2012.

Fifteen months on, Haryana has not rolled out the programme or spent a paise from the Rs 1.20 crore grant that the Centre released to the state.

Documents accessed by The Tribune show the HRD Ministry approved Rs 11 crore adult literacy projects until 2012 for Haryana. Of this, Rs 1.20 crore was released in the first year to educate 1.25 lakh non-literates in Karnal which was chosen because of its continuing literacy programme and was assumingly ready to absorb the new funds and set an example for other districts.

The districts chosen for the mission’s initial implementation across India were the ones with existing adult literacy infrastructure.

But Haryana has failed to roll out the programme even in Karnal. “Haryana was always arguing that more of its districts should have been included. But the state hasn’t managed to implement the scheme even in Karnal.We have now sanctioned the programme funds for Kaithal, Jind, Fatehabad and Hisar. But we are not sure of Haryana’s response. So far, it has been cold,” HRD Ministry sources told The Tribune, adding that Haryana had not been attending the mission’s review meetings.

Repeated pursuance (letters) by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal and Minister of State D Purandeshwari has also not helped. All this when the state’s adult female literacy rate averages 47.45 per cent with certain districts posting the worse percentages- Kaithal 36.50; Jind 37.28; Fatehabad 37.59; Hisar 41.11; Sirsa 41.31; Bhiwani 42.26; Guagaon 42.36 and Mahendragarh 43.11. The gender gap in adult literacy in the state is a whopping 28 pc points and in the SC category 31 per cent points.

So exasperated is the HRD Ministry with Haryana’s indifference to the matter that it has now pulled out staff from the State Resource Centre (these centres are 100 per cent centrally funded to promote adult literacy) and redeployed it in the Northeast where there’s interest for the programme.

Haryana’s performance under the Sakshar Bharat scheme is behind Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh in implementation. Since the project was launched in January 2010, Haryana has not reconstituted the State Literacy Mission or conducted a survey of non-literates to ascertain the new numbers.

It has not established adult education centres at the panchayat level or opened subsidiary accounts in panchayats (though these have been opened at the state, district and block level).

The state has not authorised anyone to use the central funds, resulting in zero utilisation of money, nor has it procured teaching material approved by the Centre way back in September 2009.

What state says

Principal Secretary, Education, Sureena Rajan said the programme had not been rolled out because the State Literacy Mission had not been reconstituted as laid down by the Sakshar Bharat Mission.

“The programme requires the states to nominate certain non-official members to the reconstituted state missions. So far as ex-officio members go, there’s no issue. But the non-official members’ issue is to be sorted out.

“As the Mission is not there, no one can be authorised to use the funds though awareness programmes have been conducted. Also, the project was introduced in just one district. Now that we have four more districts, we will give the programme the desired push.”

Haryana plans to reconstitute an “altered” state literacy mission (without non-official members) and seek HRD Ministry approval afresh. Says DR Chowdhry, Member, Haryana Administrative Reforms Commission:

“Haryana lacks the political will for women’s empowerment. This disinclination is evident across all sections of Haryana’s political and official circles”.