New Delhi: Union Minister for Human Resource Development (MHRD) Kapil Sibal has called upon the public sector units (PSU) and Public Sector Banks to set out a road map for participation in the ambitious Adult Education Programme "Saakshar Bharat".

He was speaking at an interactive meeting with Heads/Senior Executives of public sector undertakings and banks on Wednesday. During the meeting it was decided that the PSUs would give a white paper, to be coordinated by SCOPE to the HRD Ministry within three months, which will elaborate on how the PSUs will support "Saakshar Bharat", skill development and vocational training.

"The Paper will focus on a nucleus of 10 to 12 PSUs, a base from which the partnership can take off, which will then be broadened to include more PSUs. The Public Sector Banks will likewise prepare a coordinated proposal for partnership with the HRD Ministry for adult education," an official press release said.

"This kind of meeting between Public Sector Organizations and a Ministry, for targeted Corporate Social Sector (CSR) efforts was the first of its kind," said Bhaskar Chatterjee, Secretary of Department of Public Sector Enterprises.

Also present were D. Purandeswari, Minister of State for HRD, Anshu Vaish, Secretary (School Education & Literacy), Arup Roy Chaudhary, Chairman of SCOPE & CMD NBCC and Dr. U.D. Choubey, DG of SCOPE.

The Minister called upon the Public Sector Organizations to contribute in terms of their infrastructure, their talent and also financially; regarding which, they said they would give a road map in the next three months.

The Minister indicated that as regards financial contribution, the organizations can incentivize monetarily good performing adult education workers who are otherwise doing voluntary work. He suggested that the organizations could use their infrastructure and skill set for training in skill development and vocational courses.

He also said that physically, learning material, TVs etc. could be provided by the PSUs and Banks for adult education centres. The Minister underlined that all efforts towards literacy among the young and the non-literate older people could help India be 100 per cent literate by 2020.

On the part of the Public Sector Organizations, they stated that the areas they could help included using existing schools in their campuses which many times are in remote areas as adult education centres during non schools hours, involving spouses to volunteer for teaching especially in remote campuses, and also imparting skill development and vocational training.

The banks expressed keenness in participating in adult education as this would support their own efforts for financial inclusion. It was also suggested that a policy can be framed for utilizing e-waste and old furniture through donating it to adult education centres in an organized manner.

Saakshar Bharat was launched by the Prime Minister on September 8, 2009 and has already been rolled out in 167 districts in 26 States.

The principal focus of the Mission is on imparting functional literacy to women and other excluded groups like Scheduled Castes, Schedules Tribes, Minorities, etc. in the rural areas. The principal strategy of the department is to achieve universal female literacy in mass campaign mode in which educated adults are encouraged to act as volunteer teachers.