Applying for government schemes
The challenge
About 18 crore adults in India still cannot read or write.
Many were married young, or left school to earn for the family. Without literacy, they press an inked thumb where a signature should be, and are locked out of bank accounts, government schemes and job forms.
The problem
The numbers behind the problem
India has made great progress in schooling its children. But crores of adults were left behind — and in many villages and slums, they are still the majority.
25.76 crore
adults (15+) could not read or write — Census 2011
69.3%
adult (15+) literacy rate — Census 2011
5 crore
adults targeted by the Government's ULLAS mission, 2022–27
95%
of children are enrolled in school — yet many of their parents cannot read their report cards
Women
The cost falls hardest on women
Two out of every three non-literate adults in India are women — 16.68 crore women against 9.08 crore men. Only 59.3% of adult women can read and write, compared with 78.8% of men. When a mother learns to read, the whole household learns with her.
A literate household
How a literate household makes a brighter future for children and India
Parents who can read take a bigger part in their children’s schooling — and the children of literate parents are more likely to stay in school.
A literate household
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01
Parents can sit with their children over homework
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02
Parents can read their children’s report cards
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03
Parents can fill school admission forms
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04
Parents can talk to teachers more confidently
A brighter future — for children, and for India
Opportunity
How literacy opens opportunities
As every member of the household learns, doors that were once closed to them begin to open.
Literacy
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01
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02 Signing their own name
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03 Reading a bus number or a road sign
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04 Filling a bank slip and using a bank account
Why it fails
Adults do not fail literacy programmes.
Literacy programmes fail adults.
Most programmes are built for children and then handed to adults. Four barriers keep grown-ups away from learning.
So, what is the solution?
An adult literacy programme designed backwards from these four constraints — not forwards from a syllabus.
Background photo —
women learners in an outdoor class
A model that depends on extraordinary people cannot be scaled.
A model that depends on ordinary ones can.
Our answer
How Akshar Jyoti answers each barrier
Akshar Jyoti was designed backwards from the four constraints — so that learning fits the learner, not the other way round.
Time
Adults cannot lose a working day.
Short, flexible sessions
45–60 minutes a day, at a time the learner chooses — often in the evening, after work and housework.
Distance
Classrooms are far from the village.
Learning comes to the learner
A student teaches at home through DIKSHA, or a centre opens in the village through VIDYA.
Shame
Adults will not be taught like children.
Dignity designed in
Learners study at home with a family member or neighbour, or among other women and men from their own village.
Relevance
Generic primers miss real life.
Literacy for everyday life
Reading signs, bank slips, forms and medicine labels, writing their name, and working with money — the skills adults use every day.
Why now
The nation has made it a mission
The Government's ULLAS – Nav Bharat Saaksharta Karyakram (2022–27), aligned with NEP 2020, calls on every literate citizen to teach at least one adult in their community.
Akshar Jyoti answers that call.
From the field
The faces behind the numbers
Be part of the answer.
Every adult who learns to read needs someone beside them. ₹600 makes one adult literate. Fund a learner, bring the programme to your community, or teach an adult yourself.