Kasturirangan asks youth to help fight illiteracy

Indian Space Research Organisation chairman K. Kasturirangan has appealed to the youth to help free India from the chains of illiteracy and motivate each individual to attain a better educational status.

Dr Kasturirangan was speaking at the 48th annual convocation of Maharaja Sayajirao University here on Monday. The Isro chief also gave away 136 medals for outstanding performance to students from different faculties.

He said the focus must shift to rural areas, which "need better educational facilities to improve the current literacy rate of 45 per cent. He added that there is a lack of even basic education among the urban poor and that illiteracy will weaken India’s ability to face the challenges of the new millennium.

While focusing on the progress of the country after Independence, he said that one should not undermine the progress made in the last five decades. He said, "The country has become self-sufficient as the food production which was 50 million tonnes in 1948 has increased to about 200 million tonnes now."

He said that the country has also taken great strides in reducing infant mortality rate, improving average life span, expanding infrastructure in fields like education, energy, transport and communications and modern science and technology.

However, voicing his concern for the lack of social harmony in the country, he said, "Achieving satisfactory economic conditions for a vast majority of people and maintaining social harmony is still a big challenge for the country." He added, "The solution of various problems in our socio-economic and cultural spheres is the need to spread education that can increase the confidence and empower individuals to use their capabilities gainfully for improving quality of the life."

On his organisation’s plan for the new millennium, Dr Kasturirangan said Isro will emphasise on the use of space technology for spreading education.

"Satellite communications can play a pivotal role in accelerating spread of education and in enriching the content of education. Such system would provide access to remote rural population to the centres of excellence and allow learning through a process of interaction."

The Isro chairman said there is room for creative work by different entities like government and nongovernmental agencies, social workers, technicians and experts in the education in different aspects, which include software development and implementation of the programme.

Dr Kasturirangan pointed out the challenges that developing countries like India are faced with. He said, "India has been facing technology denials, which come as unilateral measures.

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Republished from Asian Age