India's National Literacy Mission (NLM) has won UNESCO's prestigious Noma Literacy Prize for 1999. An international jury which met in Paris to decide the winners of the UNESCO's four literacy awards singled out the NLM's effort to "galvanise activities towards national integration, conservation of the environment, promotion of women's equality and the preservation of family customs and traditions," apart from training, producing teaching-learning materials, setting up autonomous education bodies, creating awareness for education and raising the demand for quality and quantity of primary education.