Illiteracy
A crucial curse to society 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 centres 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.
