Raichur: D evelopment has taken a back seat in the district owing to the low literacy rate in rural areas, N. Manjunath Prasad, Chief Executive Officer of the Zilla Panchayat, has said.

He was delivering an introductory talk during a one-day workshop for motivators and co-motivators in the implementation of the Sampurna Swacheta Andolan, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and other development schemes, organised by the zilla panchayat here on Friday.

He said most State and Centrally-sponsored schemes were being implemented through the panchayatiraj system for the benefit of the poor in rural areas. However, beneficiaries were not able to get the benefits from such schemes owing to illiteracy. Referring to a recent report on the Human Development Index, he said the district had been placed last in the State with respect to human development. It ranked 27 in the gender-related development index and the backwardness was owing to the low literacy rate.

The district had achieved 49 per cent literacy, and 39 per cent of women were literate.

The literacy rate among women from the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribes was lower at 16 per cent and 26 per cent, respectively. The infant mortality rate in the district was also high as nearly 60 per cent of minor girls in rural areas are married early. Medical facilities reach only 48 per cent of the rural mass. Mr. Prasad said that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Schemecould provide employment to about 60,000 people in rural areas for which the Union Government had released Rs. 22 crore. However, most beneficiaries identified under the scheme, were not literate and therefore unable to exploit the benefits of the scheme. The zilla panchayat has taken steps to promote literacy, he said.

He said nearly 92 per cent of people in rural areas had no toilets even as the Government is implementing several schemes to improve sanitation. The Government has also been implementing the Janashree Bima Yojna, a group insurance scheme for the poor, and has introduced several schemes to strengthen self-help groups. Inaugurating the workshop, Minister in charge of the district Hanumanthappa Alkod said the Government had been implementing several schemes to improve the socio-economic conditions of the poor in the district. However, the benefits of such schemes were not reaching the poor owing to lack of coordination among officials and elected representatives.

He said gram panchayats had been vested with powers to implement development schemes in their respective areas. Roopa Niranjan Bale, president of the zilla panchayat, and Pamaiah Murari, vice-president of the zilla panchayat spoke.

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