RAPT ATTENTION: Former MP, M.V.V.S. Murthy (right) having a word with the president of Ambedkar Educational Society, Bypa Arun Kumar, at a seminar on eradication of illiteracy at Visakhapatnam on Sunday.

VISAKHAPATNAM: Societal action and individual commitment will help in spreading literacy and in reaching the goal of eradicating illiteracy, the former MP, M.V.V.S. Murthy, said on Sunday.

Participating in a seminar on illiteracy, he described eradication of illiteracy as an enormous task, which could not be achieved only by Government efforts. Illiteracy was the root-cause of poverty and ill health and relegating several sections of society to backwardness, he said.

Though an Act was passed in Parliament on universal elementary education, penal provisions fixing responsibility for not sending children to school were difficult to implement. To realise the goal of universal education, non-government organisations (NGOs) should play a pro-active role and individuals in high positions who came from rural areas should also take the task upon themselves, the former MP said.

Stressing the need for providing equal opportunities in the rural areas, Mr. Murthy opposed separate hostels for SC and BC categories.

The seminar was organised by Ambedkar Education Society, Disha Service Heights Voluntary Organisation, Visakha Children's Educational Society (VCES) and Universal Services Organisation. The president of Ambedkar Educational Society, Bypa Arun Kumar, said dropout rate and child labour were increasing in the urban areas where literacy rate continued to remain low in spite of efforts to improve it.

Kalyan Rao of VCES expressed concern over closure of Government schools, particularly in rural areas and urged NGOs to adopt villages to increase literacy.

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