Low female literacy rate worrying

patna: the low female literacy rate in kishanganj and adjoining muslim-dominated areas is worrying the state education department. the female literacy rate of kishanganj district, according to the 2001 census, is about 20 per cent, close to that of their afghanistan counterparts, which stands at about 18 per cent. "the figures of literacy point out that despite reports of spread of madarsas in districts, such as purnia, kishanganj, araria and katihar, the literacy rate is low.then what are these private madarsas doing?," asked a legislator of the ruling party, rjd. primary education minister ram chandra purbey has expressed concern over the low literacy rate. "we will launch a special programme to target the female population in the 10 districts, where the literacy rate is hovering at about 30 per cent," he stated insisting that it is necessary to target the female population of any community first to create awareness about education. the minister stated that he proposes to hold a workshop in the affected areas on this issue. however, officials of his department point towards the orthodox attitude of the minority community towards the girl children. "girl children in these areas are withdrawn from even madarsas as soon as they reach the age of 10," said a senior official. he pointed out that madarsas fail to arouse the ''ambition'' for modern education and that while government madarsas have included subjects like physics, chemistry and even computers, private madarsas are still teaching strictly religion. he, however, conceded that the private madarsas have far superior infrastructure than the government-owned ones. the failure of muslims to increase their literacy rate is attributed to their leadership. "many of the muslims mlas in these areas have been representing their constituencies for over 10 years, but not once have they ventured near the schools or the madarsas in their constituencies," pointed out an rjd mla, saying that the priory for the legislators belonging to the minority community was roads and not spread of education.