The Government of India recently launched a new programme called ‘Maulana Azad Taleem-e-Balighan’ for educating adult Muslims, targeting over one crore of them.
The programme was launched by Minister of State for HRD Shashi Tharoor. It aims at imparting functional literacy, vocational skill development and continuing education to one crore Muslim adults with an outlay of Rs 600 crore. Besides that, the programme also promises to offer opportunities for up-scaling basic education to around 2.5 lakh adults and skill development training to around 3 lakh people.
The government issued a statement saying that 410 Sakshar Bharat Districts would be covered with a financial outlay of Rs 600 crore during the current Plan Period.
In the statement, the government also claimed that the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language is undertaking many activities to promote, develop and propagate the language in the country. The affirmative interventions made under various schemes for promotion of education of the minorities has shown encouraging results.
It further claimed that enrollment of Muslim children at primary level as percentage of total enrollment has increased from 9.4 per cent in 2006-07 to 14.2 per cent in 2012-13, and at the upper primary level, from 7.2 per cent to 12.1 per cent during the same period.
