The Bharat Gyan Vigyan Jatha, organised between the 2nd of October and 14th of November 1990, was one of the most ambitious mass mobilisation and motivational exercises, the country and perhaps the whole world, had ever witnessed. It involved more than 5000 artists and several thousands of organisers apart from large number of village, block and district samitis that were formed. In spite of the vicious atmosphere created by social and political tensions that existed during that period, the Jatha succeeded in generating a new sense of optimism in the minds of thousands of social activists, intellectuals and administrators, apart from lakhs and lakhs of ordinary men and women. BGVJ was conducted in about 330 out of the total 450 districts of India. The total coverage of villages was around 40,000 as against the original target of 60,000.The impact of the Jatha soon became visible in concrete terms. About 150 districts have launched total literacy campaigns. About 40 million adult learners attended the literacy classes and more than 40 lakh voluntary instructors were engaged in this holy war against illiteracy and ignorance, obscurantism and backwardness.

The BGVJ-1992 was initiated with the objectives to develop informal machinery for rapid information transfer and mutual reinforcement among literacy workers at all levels and to reach every village in 250 districts with a call to stamp out illiteracy so that it would be possible to communicate to the broadest audience the above perspective on literacy and scientific awareness to create a demand for literacy campaigns and to motivate and inspire new local level groups, voluntary organisations and individuals to take up the task of eradication of illiteracy. After reviewing the progress in organisational work, it was decided that efforts might be concentrated in selected districts instead of spreading too thin all over the state. 190 Jathas were held in 142 districts from 2^nd October to 14^th November, 1992 in six low literacy states.