A grandmother and her granddaughter, a woman in rural Rajasthan wearing veils, a bridegroom in Madhya Pradesh, and elderly couples walking to school together are among the 22.7 lakh unlikely students from 10 states and union territories who qualified as literate adults this year after passing the Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Test for 2022-23.

M.P. alone produced more than 40% of the successful candidates.

While the newly launched Nav Bharat Saksharta Karyakram or New India Literacy Programme (NILP), which aims to reach one crore adults next year, relies on volunteer-based teaching due to a lack of funds to hire qualified teachers to exclusively teach adults.

According to the Education Ministry, there are between 15 and 20 crore people in India who do not know how to read or write.

According to a senior Ministry official, after the Ministry’s previous Saksharta Abhiyan concluded in 2018, the subsequent Padhna Likhna Abhiyan struggled, taking a hit during the pandemic years.

For 2022-23, the new NILP has been allocated 150 crore, of which nearly 80 crore has been released to states to kick-start the scheme. This budget, however, does not include funds to hire teachers, implying that the entire scheme is run by volunteers.

The Education Ministry encourages students and teachers to volunteer their time to teach adults to bridge this gap. A credit-based framework is being implemented as an incentive for college students with the assistance of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

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