Democracy progressively nourishes in the lap of literacy. Democracy without literacy is like the vehicle without wheels. Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people. In this system, people drive the government with the potent of literacy. But illiteracy jams the wheels and derailed the democracy out of the way. However, illiteracy can be rated as its biggest enemy because of its potential of creating such an environment that not only jeopardize the existence of democracy, but also deprives it of all the fruits that are promised by a democratic exemption. Democracy cannot flee on the back of illiteracy.
Illiteracy blurs the transparency to an opaque side. Democracy appraises literate electorates to run smoothly. Illiterate electorates are not so capable to choose visionary representatives. Lack of good education rears up unawareness in electorates, and resultantly, this unawareness leads to unwise decisions at the time of elections. Illiteracy dims awareness of fundamental rights, leading to poor governance. So, this system remains deprived of the most suitable leaders to runs its affairs.
Democracy cannot move with the false idea of literacy. If a person trudged with the mistaken belief about literacy, is also illiteracy. Illiteracy would be considered to be the inability to read and write. But illiteracy is something different to ignorance. Education can fix the illiteracy to great extent. Illiteracy is, in fact, a great curse for a country. Democracy and education are inseparable duo. Education and literacy both have a pivotal and transcendental potential to solidify democracy.
Illiteracy has a long-range effect on a democratic society. The country faced the acute shortage of services in every field of life. The institutions cannot spend according to the needs. The population of the country is increasing day by day at a neck break place. Consequently, people are deprived of many blessings which are their basic right. Ultimately, wealth of the country is distributed unequally among some hands. The poor are usually deprived of basic needs of life as inflation peeps out its ugly face. In consequence, mismanagement propels the democratic society to unemployment and poverty.
It should be noted that democracy is something different for third world. Blessing for the developed countries and a curse for the developing nation. Disproportion in the literacy rate between advanced countries and developing nations affects the positive and negative attitudes across the world. It begs the question, how can a developing nation survive with ignorance? Illiteracy entrenches feudal norms and suppresses liberties. Illiterate masses do not demand transparency in government affairs and they cannot make rulers to adopt people friendly policies. Illiterate population provides a fertile land to dictatorship, and thus a democratic society collapsed. Democracy is in declining position in developing world. Democracy needs an intensive care to revive. People needs to jump ignorance to literacy. The nation should try it’s hard to bring illiteracy down and promote democratic type of system. So that people can be rational and aware of their fundamental constitutional rights and they may understand the modes of life of the modern world.
In conclusion, democracy and illiteracy cannot move together. Government should take the incentive measures at grass root level. Prioritizing of education is the most pressing challenge as education bloods the democracy.