Agartala, Sept 8 (TIWN) India’s Left Front ruled northeastern state of Tripura attained the first spot in literacy with 94.65 percent in the country thrashing Kerala (93.91 percent), Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar announced in Agartala Sunday.

Sarkar announced the much expected feat on the occasion of the international literacy day. 

He said : “Tripura secured first position among the states of the country in literacy from the 12th place in the 2001 census and fourth spot in the 2011 census,”

While addressing a gathering on the international event, Sarkar said that after Tripura attained 87.75 percent literacy in the 2011 census, the state government has conducted a survey by the eight district magistrates in August 2012 and established the fact that there are only 131,634 people of the state’s 37 lakh people, including those aged 50 and above, are illiterate.

“Over 8,254 voluntary literacy workers (VLW) have worked terrifically with full devotion under 8,152 adult literacy centres to make the leftover (131,634 people) unlettered people literate,” the chief minister pointed out.

Over 85 master trainers have supervised the works of the VLWs, who have worked at the village and habitation levels. Anganwadi Workers under the social welfare department have also assisted the VLWs in their efforts.

“The final evaluation of the neo-literate people was conducted across the state August 10-25 under the supervision of the (Kolkata based) Indian Statistical Institution (ISI),” the chief minister said adding that now the state’s literacy has risen to 94.65 percent from the 87.75 percent in the 2011 census.

Sarkar said that the state government felt after the final report of the ISI, the state’s literacy expected to cross 96 percent.

As per the 2011 census, literacy level is 93.91 percent in Kerala and 91.58 percent in Mizoram among the full-fledged states in India.

The national literacy rate is 74.04 percent.

The Tripura success story is credited to the involvement of local government bodies, including gram panchayats, NGOs and local clubs under the close supervision of the State Literacy Mission Authority (SLMA) headed by the chief minister.

While talking to TIWN, former census director and former school education department secretary Dilip Acherjee said : “In Tripura, increase of female literacy is better than their male counterparts.”

“The literacy rate of females during the period of 2001 and 2011 census rose from 64.91 to 83.15 percent with an increase of 18.24 percent, while in the case of men the increase was just 11.18 percent -- from 81 to 92.18 percent,” said Acherjee, under whose supervision the 2011 census was held in Tripura.

While Mizoram and Tripura are among the toppers in literacy in India, another northeastern state, Arunachal Pradesh (66.95 percent), is placed second-lowest in literacy in the country, just above Bihar (63.82 percent).