Uttarakhand Declared 'Fully Literate State' After Achieving 95% Literacy Benchmark

DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand has scripted a rare success story in education. The state has crossed the 95% literacy benchmark and has been declared a “fully literate state” by the Cabinet on Thursday, marking one of the fastest literacy jumps recorded in the country. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami chaired the Cabinet meeting that approved the proposal. The move came after the state’s literacy rate climbed from 83.8% in 2023-24 to 98.7% in 2025, a rise of 14.9 percentage points in just two years. Education Minister Dhan Singh Rawat called the achievement a result of collective effort. “The literacy rate was 83.8 per cent in 2023-24. In 2025, it has reached 98.7 per cent,” Rawat told TNIE . “With this, Uttarakhand joins a select group of states that have achieved such a big leap in literacy in a short time. We believe this success is the outcome of joint efforts by the education department, voluntary organisations, local bodies and citizens." Under the Centre’s Nav Bharat Saaksharta Karyakram “ULLAS”, any state with literacy of 95 per cent or above is classified as fully literate. Uttarakhand’s new rate comfortably exceeds that threshold. Director of Secondary Education Dr Mukul Kumar Sati had sent the formal proposal to the state government on May 25, aligning it with the revised norms of the Union Education Ministry.