On Sunday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has called people who are uneducated a “burden on the country” and has also said that “illiterate people could never become a good citizen of India”.
“When you evaluate this, you will know what could be its contribution towards a nation’s progress. Ek anpadh aadmi desh par kitna bada bojh banta hai. Na jo apne Samvidhan ke diye hue adhikaro ko jaanta hai, na samvidhan ne humse jo apeksha kari hai wo dayitva ko jaanta hai. Wo kaise ek achcha nagrik ban sakta hai? Iske andar amulchur parivartan hai. (An illiterate person is a burden on the country. He neither knows the rights given to him by the Constitution, nor knows the duties expected of him by it. How can such a person become a good citizen?)
He added, “At that time (when Narendra Modi became CM of Gujarat), the biggest problem was the dropout rate. He started an enrolment process as if it was a festival and took it to 100%. He formed a committee of parents. If a child did not come to school, it was pondered upon. Responsibility of teachers was fixed. The result was that the dropout rate dropped from 37% to less than 1 per cent.”
