New Delhi, Sep. 8 (ANI): With the objective of reducing illiteracy, especially among women, the Government on Tuesday launched the Sakshar Bharat Mission on the occasion of International Literacy Day.

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh said that although good progress has been made to make India literate, a third of the population continues to remain illiterate and half of the women cannot read or write.

He said that the number of illiterate people in the country is the highest in the world.

Singh said that empowering disadvantaged groups with literacy is a big challenge for his government.

He expressed hope that the Saakshar Bharat Mission will involve the community, Panchayati Raj Institutions and women self help groups in its endeavour.

Outlining a number of progressive programmes and laws enacted by the government to empower the Aam Aadmi, Dr Singh said that literacy is central to the success of all these programmes.

Reiterating the government’s commitment to provide quality education to every child in the country, Dr Singh said that resources would not be a constraint in this effort.

The objective of this new flagship programme of the government is to provide functional literacy to the adults over 15 years of age.

It aims to achieve 100 percent literacy in 365 low literacy districts where the adult female literacy rate is 50 percent less as per the 2001 census.

Thirty-three districts affected with left wing extremism will be covered under the programme.

Ten percent of the budget of the programme will be spend in northeastern region.

The goals of the programme are to achieve the 80 percent literacy by making seven crore people literate, reduce gender disparity and minimize regional disparities. (ANI)