Rotary South Asia’s New Focus: Total Literacy by 2017

According to the CIA World Fact book, almost 75% of the world's 775 million illiterate adults are concentrated in ten countries (in descending order: India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Brazil, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Women represent two-thirds of all illiterate adults globally. Extremely low literacy rates are focused in three regions: South Asia, West Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The global literacy rate for all people aged 15 and over is 84.1%. Of those, 88.6% are male and 79.7% are female.

Total literacy in South Asia is a dream that the Rotarians now have started following.
We have set our sight on making South Asia not only literate but also better educated. This was a pledge that we took at the Rotary South Asia Conference on Literacy in March 2012 at Katmandu. Now is the time to make this pledge real. An organizational structure has been created under Rotary South Asia Committee of RI under the chairmanship of Past President Kalyan Banerjee. A National Committee too has been formed. Lot of ground work has already been done to make the frame work of the job to be done in ensuring literacy and education in South Asia.

To mark the auspicious beginning of this daunting journey, the RSALS (Rotary South Asia Literacy summit) was held during 14th and 15th December 2013 at THE ASHOK, New Delhi, where 1100 delegates had participated from various South Asian countries and discussed in minute details the pros, cons, methodologies and targets. Rotary’s TEACH (Teacher Support, E-Learning, Adult Literacy, Child Development and Happy Schools) Mission rolled out and a galaxy of Rotary Leaders, Union Ministers and Literacy Heroes presented their deliberations during the summit before Rotarians committed to and passionate about literacy.

In his message, RI President Ron Burton has said, “… It is a great pleasure to welcome you to the 2013 Rotary South Asia Literacy Summit being held here at New Delhi. As a summit participant, you play an important role in the South Asia Literacy Committee’s aggressive goal to ensure (that) the entire region is literate by 2017… By focusing our energy on a shared goal for the good of all, together we build the foundation for a more literate world. I wish you a productive event and look forward to your progress of bringing literacy to all of South Asia as you Engage Rotary, Change Lives.”

Committees responsible for overseeing the project:

The Apex Committee:

PRIP Rajendra K Saboo / Principal Advisor
PRIP Kalyan Banerjee / South Asia Literacy Committee Chair
PRID Shekhar Mehta / Rotary India Literacy Mission Chair
Panel of advisers :
Rotary India Literacy Mission / PRID Sudharsan Aggarwal
PRID Pandu Ranga Setty
PRID Sushil Gupta
PRID Ashok Mahajan
PRID Yash Pal Das

The India Literacy Executive Committee

PRID Kalyan Banerjee / ChairRISouth Asia Committee
PRID Shekhar Mehta / Chairman
PDG Kamal Sanghvi / Co-Chairman
PDG Anirudha Roy Choudhury / Secretary
PDGRavi Vadlamani / School Development Programme
PDG Raja Michael / School Development Programme
PDG Ashok Gupta / Educationist
PDG Ashok Panjwani / Educationist
PDG Promod Jejurikar / E-learning Programme
PDG AS Venkitesh / Think Tank
PDG Sushil Khurana / Govt. Liaison
PDG Satyanarayan Lakka Raju (Tikku) / Govt. Liaison
PDG Vijay Jalan / Corporate Liaison
PDG Angsuman Bandyopadhyay / Webmaster
PP Madhav Mohan / Strategic Planning

The Indian National Committee

PDG Ranjan Dhingra / Coordinator for Districts 3010, 3070, 3080 and 3090
PDG Asish Desai / Coordinator for Districts 3051, 3052. 3053 and 3060
PDG Bansi Dhurandar / Coordinator for Districts 3131, 3132 and 3140
PDG Pradeep Mukherjee / Coordinator for Districts 3110, 3120 and 3100
PDG Sanjai Meshram / Coordinator for Districts 3030, 3040 and 3261
PDG Debasish Mitra / Coordinator for Districts 3240, 3250, 3262 and 3291
PDG Jawahar Vadlamani / Coordinator for Districts 3020, 3150 and 3160
PDG Rajendra Rai / Coordinator for Districts 3180, 3190 and 3170
PDG Raja Srinivasan / Coordinator for Districts 3201, 3202 and 3230
PDG Asoka N / Coordinator for Districts 2980, 3000, 3211 and 3212

We shall keep you informed about the detailed progress of the journey towards this noble cause and mission…