Date:26/05/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/05/26/stories/2005052602730300.htm

Karnataka - Bidar

Self-help groups to be involved in literacy promotion activities

Staff Correspondent

REVIEWING PROGRESS: Nagambika Devi, Director of Mass Education, speaking at a meeting to review literacy programmes, in Bidar on Wednesday. The Chief Executive Officer of the Bidar Zilla Panchayat, Antony Mendonca (left); the State Literacy Mission A uthority President, B. Narayan; and the Secretary to the Department of Primary and Secondary Education, T.M. Vijay Bhaskar, attended the meeting.

BIDAR: Promoting literacy through self-help groups is proving to be a successful idea, Nagambika Devi, Director of Mass Education, said here on Wednesday.

Peer pressure makes self-help group members take to reading and writing. These women also become good teachers and literacy promoters after they become literate, Dr. Nagambika Devi said at a review meeting.

In the first phase, districts in the Hyderabad Karnataka region, which have the lowest female literacy rate, have been targeted. But all self-help groups in the State will be used to promote literacy, she added.

The "Kalyana Nadu, Sakshara Nadu" programme is aimed at eradicating illiteracy in the Hyderabad Karnataka region. It is being implemented in coordination with self-help groups, non-governmental organisations and gram panchayats, she said.

"We have already trained 7,950 volunteers for the purpose. Each volunteer will be given a target of training 15 non-literate persons in three months. They will be given a cash incentive at the end of each quarter, she said and added that the incentive will be highest for training a Dalit woman. The volunteers will work from centres established by non-governmental organisations. The taluk coordinators will evaluate the work of each volunteer by testing the skills of each beneficiary. Incentives will be given to volunteers only after the evaluation is complete, Dr. Nagambika Devi said.

As many as 1.22 lakhs people will be covered in Bidar under the programme, she said. They include self-help group and gram panchayat members and others.