Illiteracy
means the state of being unable to read and write. It is a curse to any society
because illiterate people cannot differentiate between right and wrong and so
they cannot contribute to the development and welfare of the community. People
being educated can go ahead to the right path and can lead a country to
progress and prosperity. To give emphasis on literacy, the Prophet Mohammad
(SM) equated one literate non-believer with ten illiterate believers. As
education makes a man enlightened, illiterate people are deprived of the light
of education. So, most often illiterate people cannot rectify themselves,
cannot change their mentality and obsolete harmful habits, cannot adapt with
the new and modern thoughts, cannot accept the positive social changes, cannot
think all equal, cannot develop the sense of universal brotherhood and so on.
That‘s why, illiteracy is often called a curse. It is a great impediment to the
process of social development. It baffles all development efforts. It gives
rise to poverty, unemployment problem, population problem, health and
sanitation problem etc. It is compared to darkness. So, an illiterate man is always
in the dark and is considered a burden to the society. On the contrary, an
educated man is often enlightened and is considered a great asset to the
country. He can do many things for the welfare of the country. And for these
reasons, illiteracy should be annihilated. It is the responsibility of the
literate people to make the illiterate literate and remove the darkness of
ignorance from the country. We know that the concerted efforts of the literate
and illiterate people can make a country developed. To remove illiteracy, the
govt. must budget for the campaign of eradicating illiteracy. Night schools and
mass literacy centers should be established at every village. Mass media like
radio, television and newspaper can take some initiatives and effective
programmes to educate the illiterate. In this way, if we can eradicate illiteracy
from our society, we will be able to make ours a prosperous country