President Patil to flag off 'Saakshar Bharat Yatra' on Feb. 18

New Delhi, Feb 15 (ANI): President Pratibha Devisingh Patil will flag off the 'Saakshar Bharat Yatra' from the Rashtrapati Bhawan here on Saturday.

President Patil will flag off the 'Saakshar Bharat Yatra' at 11.30 a.m. on Saturday in the presence of Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal and Minister of State for Human Resource Development Dr. D. Purandeswari.

A nationwide mobilization campaign is being organized by National Literacy Mission during February-March 2012 in collaboration with a Non-Government Organisation: Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti for promoting Saakshar Bharat Programme.

A country wide 'jatha' will be organized covering 22 States, 180 districts, 1000 blocks, over 16,000 panchayats.

The objectives of the Saakshar Bharat Yatra are to draw the attention of the entire country towards Saakshar Bharat Programme, to carry out a nationwide campaign for mobilization of public opinion and enthusiasm towards the importance and need of literacy and life long education, to conduct widespread 'Jan Vachan programmes' for refocusing the public mind on issues connected with literacy and lifelong education, to create a demand for a major rural reading and library movement, as the back bone for the lifelong education programmes in the country and to facilitate formation of resource support groups at various levels for effective implementation of Saakshar Bharat programme. (ANI)