A person literate in a language is one who can with understanding both read and write a short simple statement relevant to his everyday life.

Literacy is not the simple reading of word or a set of associated symbols and sounds, but an act of critical understanding of men's situation in the world.

Literacy is not an end in itself but a means of personal liberation and development and extending individuals educational efforts involving overall inter-disciplinary responses to concrete problems.

A literate person is one who has acquired all the essential knowledge and skills which enable him to engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for effective functioning in his group and community and whose attaining in reading, writing and numeracy make it possible to use these skills towards his own and his community's development (more details at Skills for Civic Participation (at atria.us)).

A definition by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO (Actor Atlas)), cited by Virendra P Singh (Scribd) in Rational Approach to Hindi Literacy (Scribd).