Aizawl: Mizoram has launched a special campaign to make the northeastern state fully literate by March next year, Education Minister Pu Lalsawta has said.

The minister launched the Rapid Action Total Literacy Campaign (RATLC) in south Mizoram's Lunglei district late on Friday.

"The ambitious mission was aimed to make Mizoram a 100 percent literate state before the completion of the 2011 census in March," Lalsawta told the gathering.

According to 2001 census, the literacy rate in Mizoram was 88.80 percent and next only to Kerala's 90.86 percent against the national literacy rate of 64.84 percent.

A latest survey conducted jointly by the Mizoram government and a New Delhi-based research body in 2009, the mountainous state, bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh, had achieved 90.27 percent (of the state's one million population) literacy rate till 2008.

According to the minister, priority to implement the multi-pronged RATLC would be given in less literacy areas of Lawngtlai, Lunglei and Mamit districts of the state's eight districts.

Mizoram is a Christian-dominated state and one of the beneficial results of Missionary activities was the spread of education. The Missionaries introduced the Roman script for the Mizo language and formal education. The cumulative result is the present high percentage of literacy. IANS