The nomad communities of Gujjar and Bakerwal have urged the state government toinitiate new educationalschemes fortheir tribes keeping in view their difficult lifestyle and migratory way of life.
"Given the dismal literacy rate amongst the community, the state government must initiate new educational schemes for the Gujjar and Bakerwal communities," Secretary, Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation (TRCF) Javaid Rahi said.
Rahi saidthat only education can change the fate of Gujjars and Bakerwals asboth the tribal groups are facing extremely low literacy rates incomparisonto other tribes of Jammu and Kashmir.
The data of Government census 2011 says that seven out of ten Gujjars and Bakerwals of the state are illiterate, he said.
"The data is quite alarming rather distressing. The literacy rate amongst Gujjar-Bakerwal women is worst with 82.2 per cent illiteracy as per the data released by Registrar General of India," he said.
Rahi said that the state Government should initiate new educational schemes to tackle this serious problem of illiteracy amongst the members of the two communities.
