7% in 1951 to 99.3%: Himachal Pradesh declared fully literate; joins elite club with Goa, Mizoram, Tripura

SHIMLA: Amid the floods and devastation in Himachal Pradesh, here's some cheer — the state has achieved full literacy and joins Mizoram, Goa, and Tripura in the batch of 2025.Himachal's literacy rate has risen to 99.3% from a mere 7% in 1951, chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu announced on Monday, International Literacy Day. Under the centrally sponsored literacy programme — ‘Understanding of Lifelong Learning for All in Society' (ULLAS) — any state with a literacy rate of at least 95% among those aged 15 years and above is considered fully literate. ULLAS defines literacy as the ability to "read, write, and compute with comprehension".The education department is going all out to teach the 56,900-odd non-literate persons in Himachal to get to 100%. Earlier this year only Mizoram (98.2%), Goa (99.7%) and Tripura (95.6%) achieved full literacy status.Sukhu said Himachal reached this goal well before the scheduled timeframe and emphasised the need for continuous reforms to keep up with modern requirements. The state ranks first in student-teacher ratio, he said and promised to introduce changes in the education sector and transform state govt institutions into centres of excellence.Education minister Rohit Thakur recalled that after Independence, the state had among the lowest literacy rates. "Successive govts worked hard, and today Himachal has reached the top position in India. The dropout rate in the state has come down to almost zero," he said, lauding the women's groups, youth clubs, voluntary organisations and NGOs that played a significant role in the past three decades towards achieving a 99.3% literacy rate.Union education secretary Sanjay Kumar, in a video message, congratulated Himachal on this achievement and emphasised the importance of providing skill-based education to the newly literate.