National

“Total literacy makes a nation powerful”

Kolkata: A country can claim to be really powerful if its entire population is literate, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said here on the occasion of International Literacy Day on Saturday.

“People think that a country can be powerful if it has nuclear weapons but what good are those weapons if the people remain illiterate and unfed?” he asked, at an event organised by the State’s Mass Education Extension and Library Services department. “Though India has a huge number of highly qualified people, it is also home to the highest number of illiterates anywhere in the world.”

While wealthy countries were appropriating the benefits of science and technology, countries in the South, notably in Asia, Africa and South America were assailed by poverty and disease and lack of education, Mr. Bhattacharjee said. “We must introspect as to why, even after 60 years of Independence and 10 five year plans, we are still uncertain as to when we will achieve 100 per cent literacy,” he said.

To further the literacy programmes, the infrastructure of the existing primary and secondary schools in West Bengal would be utilised for conducting evening and night classes for the elderly and others unable to attend school, Mr. Bhattacharjee said. “The 2001 census figures say that our State has a literacy rate of around 70 per cent, but that is no reason to rejoice,” he said. He also suggested the involvement of Self Help Groups to take forward the literacy project.

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