NCC signs MoU with UNICEF on literacy project

Kakinada, Oct 12 (UNI) The Director General of National Cadet Corps (NCC) Lt Gen Prakash S Chaudhary today said the NCC had signed an MoU with UNICEF for taking up 'girls literacy project' on a pilot basis and already launched the scheme in Chattisgargh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Rajasthan, where the literacy among girls was low compared to other states.

Talking to newspersons here, Lt General Chaudhary said based on the pereformance, the project would be extended to other states within a couple of years. Each girl cadet would adopt two illiterate girls and make them literate, he added.

Claiming that the NCC would be useful as an effective social weapon in putting an end to the superstitions and in bringing down female foeticides, promoting communal harmony and campaigning against AIDS, he said NCC cadets were rendering service to the needy in case of natural calamities and other disasters. The cadets, were credited with donating 23,000 units of blood every year, he added.

On the expansion of NCC, Mr Chaudhary said it was spread all over the country with 13 lakh cadets from 608 districts trained under 94 NCC groups.

He said the Centre had agreed to increase the strength of NCC cadets from 13 lakh to 15 lakh and 30,000 new cadets would be added every year for the next five years. In order to help the cadets to choose a better career, he said, cadet counselling was started recently and 400 officers were exclusively trained for the purpose.

Mr Chaudhary had called upon the students to join the NCC more in number for a bright future and added that in future the major requirment of armed forces would be met with the NCC cadets alone.

UNI XR/BR RL NS1918