NIFT PG 2009 Question Paper with solutions

  It is common knowledge that the root cause of our backwardness in most fields is illiteracy. Campaigns for the eradication of this drawback gathered momentum in the decades after Independence. The results are, as expected, dramatic. However, while the percentage of literacy in India is going up, the number of illiterates has also been increasing, which is really incredible. Thus, according to the 1991 census figures, there were 503 million illiterates in the country, 30 million more than in 1981. During the same period, the percentage of literacy went up from 34 to 39 per cent. There is no need of any sophisticated technique to explain the cause of this paradox, as it is obviously the result of the rapid growth of population. The rapid growth of population has outpaced whatever little progress had been achieved in literacy. For instance, from 1971 to 1981, literacy increased at an annual average rate of 0.7 per cent, while the country’s population grew by 2.15 per cent every year. In the following decade, the average rate of annual increase in literacy was 0.95 per cent, whereas the population grew by almost 2.85 per cent every year during that decade. But population explosion is not entirely responsible for the growing number of illiterates. The apathy of most states in failing to tackle the problem of adult illiteracy is also partly to blame. Till now, they have shown little awareness of the magnitude of the problem. Moreover, follow-up measures to prevent neo-literates from relapsing into illiteracy are just as important as the initial adult literacy campaigns. In this case too, the State Education authorities are negligent. Not sufficient provision has been made for ‘continued education’. This can be done by setting up more rural libraries, adult schools and correspondence courses.