LAHORE, Aug 5: The literary and non-formal basic education department, in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank, will launch a project to empower the women of Barani (rain-fed) areas of the Punjab through functional literacy and training.

This was stated by Punjab Minister for Literacy and Non-formal Basic Education Husain Jehanian Gardezi at the inaugural session of a workshop at a hotel here on Friday.

He said the children of Barani areas where literacy rate was extremely low would be focused through this project. Without purposeful and need-based education, no change could be brought about in society, he added.

Besides improving the literacy rate, he said the government was also taking measures to alleviate poverty through equipping the poor with skills which included needle work, embroidery, harvesting, vegetable growing, poultry and farming, and other technologies to earn their livelihood.

The minister said the department had started a literacy programme in Khanewal, Khushab, Dera Ghazi Khan and Mandi Bahauddin to achieve 100 per cent literacy.

Literacy secretary Abid Saeed, ADB project analyst Cynthia Aurora and ADB consultant Dr Shane Tarr also spoke.