WUNRN
India:
Women of Jirania Lead for Literacy & Education
By Soma Mitra
Jirania (Women's Feature Service) - The remote administrative block of Jirania,
in West Tripura, with its mixed population of tribals and non-tribals, has - in
a truly remarkable way - turned a large proportion of its population literate.
This has been done under the Prabahaman Siksha Karma Suchi project of the Rajya
Saksharata Mission (State Literacy Mission).
Today, Jirania boasts of a literacy rate of 97 per cent. Not only is this higher
than the state's average of 82 per cent, it's also much higher than the
national average figure of 61 per cent, reports Gautam Choudhury, the Block
Development Officer (BDO).
Of course, all the credit for this should go to the women, who have worked
tirelessly for over a decade as volunteers of the Prabahaman Siksha Karma Suchi
among the various communities of the region to highlight the importance of
literacy.
In fact, the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, a central government programme for universal
elementary education, has now become part of Jirania's identity. Juhera Khatun,
a volunteer from Ranir Bazar village, says, "If the mother is not literate
then her children will also remain illiterate. Without education a person is as
good as blind. We took this project as a challenge. We gather the village women
and teach them. Our classes start from two in the afternoon. I have been
involved with the total literacy programme from 1994 and, today, we have almost
achieved our target."
Jirania block has 43 villages where the project has been implemented as part of
the State Literacy Mission. Every week, all the volunteers of the project from
various villages hold a meeting, which is chaired by the BDO, to exchange notes
on the different aspects of the programme.
When the project was launched in 1995 there were around 19,442 illiterate
people in the block. Today, this number has come down to 347, with many among
them being either physically challenged or too old to come to the study
centres. There are around 100 such centres, run by the State Literacy Mission,
across the block and they are set up at popular places in the villages. Also,
those villagers who are active participants in the project give their private
space for evening classes.
Over the years, the local women have motivated hundreds of uneducated people
between the age group of 15 to 50 to enrol themselves in the adult education
centres that hold classes for school drop-outs and illiterate people. Education
has not just been restricted to the basics of reading and writing. In order to
give the students a wider perspective, they are encouraged to talk about larger
concerns, even national problems, and ways in which they could be addressed.
The first challenge the volunteers faced was to get the elderly, especially
older women, to come to the study centres. The volunteers admit that it was far
easier to motivate children and youngsters to study because their parents and
guardians could be counted upon to send them to the centre in order to improve
their future prospects. But when it came to the elderly it was a different
story. For one, they believed that they will not really benefit from such
learning and in any case the opportunity costs were far too high since most of
them are employed and found it difficult to make the necessary time. In the
case of the women, social taboos and the belief that they are better off within
the four walls of their homes had also contributed significantly to the earlier
levels of illiteracy.
The volunteers also realised that the only way to increase the rate of
enrolment in the literacy programmes was to introduce some kind of vocational
training along with the regular teaching. Some of the literate members of the
community, therefore, got together and made provision for the introduction of
vocational training courses, like food packaging, tailoring and stitching,
which were then imparted free of cost. Now, for instance, the women of
Bridhdhanagar village package and sell pineapple jam. (Tripura is well-known
across the globe for its pineapple products.)
Another move that has contributed to the sharp rise in the literacy level in
this block was the move by local panchayats to make it mandatory for villagers
working under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) to sign their
names rather than settle for thumb impressions while collecting their wages.
This central scheme guarantees 100 days of work to the unemployed.
Observes Renu Saha, 32, a teacher at an adult education centre in Ranir Bazar
village, "At this government centre, it is largely the poor and illiterate
from the surrounding regions who come to learn. Our centre is open from two to
four in the afternoon to make it convenient for most people, especially the
women."
Thanks to these sustained efforts to gradually dismantle all the roadblocks to
total literacy, everybody - not just the men - began to attend the numerous
study centres in Jirania regularly, some making it a point to be present at
class even if it meant bringing their children along. They have also discovered
many additional gains of their newfound literacy. For instance, now that they
themselves are able to read and write, they can help their children to acquire
these skills.
States Samba Laxmi Debbarma, 28, a Tripuri tribal student from Colagesura
village, with pride, "Since our tribal communities are backward, many of
us are still illiterate. Realising this I joined this centre. Now, not only can
I read and write, I can also do maths and count money. People can no longer
make a fool of me by giving me a sum of Rs 10 and getting my thumb impression
on a piece of paper that mentions a bigger amount. Now that I am literate, I
can read for myself."
Over the years, many more women from the poor and backward sections of society
have come to believe that education is their fundamental right and have
enrolled in the local study centres. This change in mindsets will go a long way
in helping them overcome the severely debilitating effect of poverty and
deprivation.
The people of Jirania have shown the way. Many poor and illiterate communities
in the rest of the country can learn from the example set by this little known
block in distant Tripura.
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