Eleventh Five Year Plan

12 Eleventh Five Year Plan700 calories derived from 150 gm of cereals and 20 gmof protein.MDMS: ACTION POINTS• MDM to be managed by the local communityand PRIs/NGOs, and not contractor-driven: civicquality and safety to be prime considerations.• Sensitize teachers and others involved in nutrition,hygiene, cleanliness, and safety norms to rectifyobserved deficiencies.• Involve nutrition experts in planning low costnutrition menu and for periodic testing of samplesof prepared food.• Promote locally grown nutritionally rich food itemsthrough kitchen gardens in school, etc.• Revive the School Health Programme; disseminateand replicate best practices adopted by States.• Provide drinking facilities in all schools on anurgent basis.• Display status regarding supplies, funds, norms,weekly menu, and coverage in schools to ensuretransparency.• Central assistance to cooking cost should be basedon the actual number of beneficiary children andnot on enrolment.• Promote social audit.• Online monitoring.Mahila Samakhya (MS)1.1.60 The MS programme will be continued asper the existing pattern and expanded in a phasedmanner to cover all the EBBs and also in urban/suburban slums, as it contributes to educational empowermentof poor women. There is a need tooperationalize the National Resource Centre of MSto support training, research, and proper documentation.The documentation and dissemination ofMS needs its strengthening. It is desirable to concludenegotiations with the development partners asEAP comes with excellent project design and measurementsystem, capacity building, and TA.LITERACY AND ADULT EDUCATION:PERFORMANCE IN TENTH PLAN1.1.61 Literacy is the most essential prerequisite forindividual empowerment. A new thrust was given toadult literacy in the National Policy on Education 1986and the Plan of Action 1992, which advocated a threeprongedstrategy of adult education, elementaryeducation, and non-formal education to eradicateilliteracy. The National Literacy Mission (NLM) wasset up in 1988 with an initial target to make 80 millionpersons literate by 1995, which was later enhanced to100 million by 1997 and the revised target is to achievea threshold level of 75% literacy by 2007.1.1.62 Dominant strategies of the NLM and the TotalLiteracy Campaigns (TLC) were ‘area specific, timebound, volunteer based, cost effective and result oriented.’The efforts made by the TLCs and Post LiteracyProjects (PLP) to eradicate illiteracy yielded commendableresults: rise in literacy from 52.2% in 1991 to64.8% in 2001. The urban–rural literacy differentialalso decreased during the period. The literacy rates forfemales increased at a faster rate than that for males.However, gender and regional disparities in literacy stillcontinue to persist.1.1.63 The national overall literacy rate for Muslimsis 59.1% (males 67.6% and females 50.1%). The literacyrate among Muslims is higher than the national literacyrate of 64.8% in 17 States/UTs.1.1.64 Female literacy rates among Muslims are particularlylow in Haryana (21.5%), Bihar (31.5%),Nagaland (33.3%), and Jammu and Kashmir (34.9%).1.1.65 The Tenth Plan had set a target of achieving asustainable threshold level of 75% literacy by 2007, tocover all left-over districts by 2003–04, to removeresidual illiteracy in the existing districts by 2004–05,to complete PLP in all districts and to launch ContinuingEducation Programmes (CEP) in 100 districtsby the end of the Plan periodTLC and PLP1.1.66 The TLC has been the principal strategy of NLMfor eradication of illiteracy. The TLCs are implementedthrough Zilla Saksharata Samitis (District LiteracySocieties), independent and autonomous bodies havingdue representation of all sections of society. A totalof 597 districts are presently covered under various literacyprogrammes The Central:State share for TLCsand PLPs is in the ratio of 2:1 for general districts and