The world gears up to celebrate International Literacy Day on 8 September. The theme for 2016 is Reading the Past, Writing the Future. After UNESCO officially proclaimed the day as International Literacy Day on 17 November 1965, communities all around the world have been commemorating the day by holding various programmes and events.

• This would be the 50th celebration of the historic event.The primary objective is to promote literacy, which in turn would help to eradicate social malice. People around the world honour the day by contributing in various forms including written words and literary pieces.

• A two-day conference will be held at UNESCO headquarter in Paris to launch the Global Alliance for Literacy.

Literacy in India:

• As per the latest Census 2011 report, the illiteracy rate in India is 22 per cent.

• As per UNESCO’s new Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report, India is expected to achieve universal primary education in 2050, universal lower secondary education in 2060 and universal upper secondary education in 2085.

• According to 2011 census, Kerala is the most literate state with 93.91 per cent, Lakshadweep at 92.28 per cent, Mizoram at 91.58 per cent, Tripura at 87.75 percent and Goa at 87.40 percent.

• Bihar and Telangana have the lowest liteacy with only 63.82 percent and 66.50 percent literate people respectively.

• In 2014, the literacy rate of India increased by 10 percent.