On International Literacy Day, Mint takes a look at some of the more innovative and effective projects that are currently being undertaken to raise literacy levels in India.
Khabar Lahariya – Nirantar
Khabar Lahariya is a weekly Bundeli language newspaper that is written, edited, illustrated, produced and marketed entirely by women in the rural Chritrakoot and Banda districts of Uttar Pradesh–most of whom are newly literate and/or from marginalized communities. The paper has a print run of around 4000 copies, and a readership of over 25,000. It is sold for Rs.2 a copy in over 400 villages in both districts.
Image courtesy of Nirantar
Khabar Lahariya offers a mix of local news and entertainment--covering topics like the functioning of panchayats, local politics, community schools and hospitals. It also aims to highlight instances of violence against women, political apathy and bureaucratic corruption. Delhi based gender and education NGO Nirantar, which started Khabar Lahariya, has worked to train the paper’s staffers--helping them develop their writing, editing and reporting skills, their understanding of politics, and their ability to interact with officials in the public sphere.
Click here for a slideshow depicting how Khabar Lahariya operates
News in rural areas is traditionally a male dominated space, and Khabar Lahariya has been hailed as a progressive effort. On International Literacy Day, the newspaper is being awarded UNESCO’s $20,000 King Sejong Literacy Prize, which rewards NGOs and government agencies that have displayed effective results in combating illiteracy.
Same Language Subtitling – PlanetRead
Nonprofit PlanetRead has a karaoke approach to combating illiteracy. Aiming to capitalize on the Indian public’s penchant for Bollywood, Planet Read has created a program that runs same language subtitles on film songs as a way to teach viewers how to read.
PlanetRead’s CEO, Nirav Shah, tells Mint that the SLS program reaches about 200 million plus viewers, and is currently operative across 8 different song programs in 8 different languages. Rangoli, Doordarshan’s most popular song based program, which broadcasts nationally on Sunday mornings from 8-9AM, is one of the programmes offering the subtitles.