Projects
Khabar Lahariya (News Waves) Programme
Implementing Organization: NIRANTAR: Centre for Gender and Education
Khabar Lahariya ¬is a low-cost weekly rural newspaper (sold at about two rupees) which is entirely produced and marketed by women most of whom are from the marginalised Dalit, Kol and Muslim communities – in the two rural districts of Chitrakoot and Banda of Uttar Pradesh in north India. The newspaper, which is entirely produced in the local Hindi and Bundeli languages, was launched in Chitrakoot in May 2002 and a second edition was launched in Banda district in 2006. Currently, the paper has a print run of about 5,000 copies per week and a readership of about 35,000 people in over 450 villages in both districts. Read more
Source: UIL
Reading for a Billion: Same Language Subtitling
Implementing Organization: PlanetRead and IIM Ahmedabad
Language of Instruction: Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Marathi
Funding: Short-term funding from Sir Ratan Tata Trust, Dell Giving, Development Marketplace (World Bank), Google Foundation, and Department of School Education and Literacy
Date of Inception: 1999
Same Language Subtitling (SLS) was originally created for the hearing impaired. It wasn’t until the late 1990s that SLS was combined with popular culture on TV to deliver reading practice in an easy and fun way. The idea is to subtitle music videos and songs from movies on television in the same language as the audio track so that the subtitles pass on the screen at the same time as the audio. Extensive feedback was gathered from 1996–1998, and it was clear that viewers liked the idea of reading along, mainly because it allowed them to sing along and learn the lyrics to their favourite songs. By 1999, SLS was put into practice, for the first time on Gujarat state TV, on a weekly half- hour programme of film songs. In 2002–2003 the SLS project got a grant from the Development Marketplace (World Bank), making it possible to extend SLS on ‘Chitrahaar’ and ‘Rangoli’ TV programmes, which broadcast Hindi film songs across the country.
Read more
Source: UIL
Sahajani Shiksha Kendra: Literacy and Education for Women’s Empowerment
Implementing Organization: Nirantar (a national NGO)
Language of Instruction: Hindi and Bundeli (local languages)
Funding: Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, DVV (German Adult Education Association)
Date of Inception: May 2002 (ongoing)
Nirantar initiated Sahajani Shiksha Kendra (SSK) in 2002. 'Sahajani' in the local language means ‘one who helps women’. The programme broadly aims at empowering women and adolescent girls through literacy and education – an education that makes connections with their lived realities and rights, and enables them to develop analytical skills on gender, development and other issues. Through its different activities, the programme reaches over 2000 women and adolescent girls belonging to the most marginalised communities like Dalits (Scheduled Castes – SC) and Adivasis (Scheduled Tribes – ST).Read more
Source: UIL
Tata Computer-based Functional Literacy Programme
Launched in February 2000 in the Beeramguda village in Medak district of Andhra Pradesh, this ground-breaking project seeks to combat illiteracy with a new approach to learning, using multimedia and flashcards to fortify the learning experience. The lessons focus on reading, are tailored to fit different languages and even dialects, and are based on the theories of cognition, language and communication. A typical class has between 15 and 20 people and is held in the evening hours. While early in the project most of the instructors were retired teachers, many of the classes are now conducted by those made literate by the project.
Today the CBFL project is operational in more than 1,000 centres in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, and it has helped more than 20,000 people learn the most basic of the three Rs: reading. More centres are in the process of being set up, which means that many more of India's uneducated will have a shot at a better life. Tamil, Marathi, Hindi and Bengali versions of the programme are all now operating under the programme. Tata claims that if implemented properly, the project can make 90 per cent of India literate in three to five years. Read More