An Experience of Training Rural and Tribal Women To be Presented in Seminar

Role of Socio-Religious Cults in Rural Development.

On Feb15-16,2003

By SIRDI,Bahiram,Karanja,M. P.

Presented by:- Dr. Janak Palta mcgilligan

On the occasion of International Year of Literacy in 1990, UNESCO proclaimed the goal of “Literacy for all by the year 2000’. It started this goal through worldwide programmes run by governments and non-governmental organisations. The main objective of this programme was to promote literacy activities for human rights, cultural identity, improving the quality of life and establishing foundations for social and economic development. It is still not a reality to date.

India’s position on the literacy map is far behind the Asian countries like China, Sri Lanka, Burma, and Vietnam. India has 2.4% of the world’s geographical area, 17% of the world’s population, but it has 40% of the world’s illiterate. Historically, there were 50 million literate in 1951 and 247 million literate in 1981, with an average growth rate of 6.23 million literate per year; the number of illiterate was 300 million in 1951 and 437 million literate in 1981. This called for general support of the governments at all levels in collaboration with non-governmental organisations working for the elimination of illiteracy from our country. In 1990 the government of India started literacy missions in 200 districts of the country. There have been many claims of complete literacy in villages and districts. The president of India on September 8, 1993, said that while progress has been made in the direction of reducing illiteracy, much needs to be done.

The rate of growth of the population and the dropout rate at the primary level stage of education has been cited as being primarily responsible for the alarming level of illiteracy in our country. Female literacy level has been much lower than the average. For instance, in 1991 the average literacy rate 52.2% and the male literacy rate is 63.86%, while the female literacy rate is 36.14%. In 2001, there was improvement in the statistics of literacy, we are sure rural and tribal female literacy is much lower. Women lack access of opportunities in higher education, science and technology.

Despite all the plans and higher budgets in the name of female literacy, women have not been able to make much progress. This is the main challenge for us. Attaining of female literacy even to equal to the average is a big challenge for all of us.

According to Baha’i principles, education of women is more necessary and important than that of men, as woman is the trainer of the child through its infancy.

Success can never be consolidated without spiritual commitment to serve the illiterates who are normally poverty-stricken or socially disadvantaged. Women are worst hit in our social system. Women’s role in society is so vital that nothing short of making it an absolute priority could ensure success in any social endeavour. Through making women literate, we can conquer the greatest evils of our society: underdevelopment, pollution, over population and violence. Education and literacy are not merely learning the “the three Rs” (reading, writing and arithmetic); rather, they must aim at educating people to transform their families and communities. Education is a continuous and creative process. Its aim is to develop the capacity that every human being has, although he or she may not be aware of it. Through education, these hidden qualities can be developed for the benefit of the individual and for the good of society. Baha’u’allah, the founder of the Baha’i faith commenting on human potentialities, said, “Regard men (and women) as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can alone, cause it to reveal its treasure and enable mankind to benefit therefrom.”

Considering this, we should start to dig these mines of gems, the illiterate women, and become the instruments of turning them to diamonds. We need to serve because God has given us the capacity and position.

This kind of education is not possible through the existing school system. The Baha’i concept of education is aimed to achieve the following goals:

  1. Human creativity can generate service to humanity and desire for the unification of mankind.
  1. Principles alone will not suffice to ensure personal growth and social change; it is action and the will to empower people.
  1. Recognition that the pursuit of wealth and power does not lead to happiness. Self-respect, integrity and morality are necessary for happiness.
  1. Individuals should be skilled at least in a particular field so they can experience the truth that work done in the spirit of service is worship and they can lead lives of dignity and honour.
  1. People should be aware of programmes of health, environment, sanitation, agriculture, crafts and industry taking place, at least in their own area.
  1. Individuals should be able to reconcile science and religion. Science can only be used as a positive development if those who use it have a spiritual commitment; otherwise it will lead to destruction. Similarly, religion without science will become dogma and superstition.
  1. Individuals should be able to develop their intellectual capacity and help in carrying out community projects successfully.
  1. Individuals should analyse social conditions and their causes. They should be able to contribute ideas relating to community problems and their solutions.
  1. The individual can be able to take part in community planning and action when decisions resulting from consultation are made in the spirit of unity and collaboration.
  1. The individual should be able to understand the different responsibilities towards their government, abide by the law, and participate in overall human development.

Women constitute a major unrecognised and untapped human resource. Many governments and non-governmental organisations are working to train women in skill development. There is an emphasis in linking training to self-employment opportunities, entrepreneurship, science and technology. It is normally observed that there is under-participation and underachievement of women in the economic sphere. Any training programme for women has to go through a psycho-social process because of the various social constraints in our country. The first stage is awareness of the society followed by motivation and empowerment of the women being trained. The second dimension of training is helping the women understand its relevance in their lives. Thirdly, the trainers should work as facilitators, not as instructors, and promote the independence and confidence of the trainees.

LITERACY AT BARLI DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE FOR RURAL WOMEN

All that we have said is based on our experience of working and learning at Barli Development Institute for Rural Women in Indore. The Institute has been training the underprivileged, rural, mainly tribal women of south west Madhya Pradesh in Districts Jhabua, Dhar, Khargone, Shajapur, Dewas, Indore and Ujain since 1985.

The target population had previously no opportunities to basic education or had never gone to school. The tribal female literacy rate in areas like Jhabua is only 10%. Most of these areas have there own unwritten dialect Bhili or Bhilali; they hardly speak any Hindi.

The Institute to date has trained 1,500 women and aims at improving the quality of life of the trainees. The programme is designed to foster a positive attitude towards change. Local entrepreneurship, leadership, and human rights by acquiring awareness of their own innate worth and practical ability. The Institute encourages the use of a flexible Hindi, basic life skills like health, nutrition and diet, environmental education, income generation skills, building self-esteem and spiritual qualities through literacy.

THE INSTITUTE CONDUCTS THE FOLLOWING PROGRAMMES EVERY YEAR

Normally the women are 15 to 35 years of age. The Institute allows nursing mothers to bring their children with them to the programme. This has proven to be of great importance for the families that would otherwise be unwilling or unable to let the mother attend.

LITERACY CONTENT IN OUR PROGRAMMES

Training of skills and empowerment of women is not possible without literacy. The Institute empowers each trainee with Hindi literacy to enable her to understand the purpose of her being and the world she lives in. This understanding helps her to assume responsibility in finding solutions to personal problems and to take positive action in the context of an ever-advancing civilisation.

The Institute uses the National Baha’i literacy programme, which was field-tested at the Institute itself. We also encourage them to use the government’s curriculum after training. The Institute’s director is one of the authors and a member of the group that developed the literacy material on the basis of her knowledge and personal experience as a literacy teacher.

LITERACY BOOKS

They encompass various themes that serve to provide information and stimulate thinking on various issues like justice, co-operation etc. The themes are name, service, woman, co-operation, meeting, work, justice, prophet, brotherhood, investigation, unity, consultation, prayer and fasting, world, untouchability, medicine, universe, truthfulness and lying, pride, encouragement, science, education, friendship, sainthood.

The Institute teaches them to read, write, comprehend simple forms, notices, messages, letters, signs and simple books. The students are taught numeracy including simple mathematics, calculations and measurements of length, weight, volume and time.

All the subjects are taught holistically by interweaving literacy for instance into learning gardening; they will learn to count the tools, trees, fruits and weigh them and how to write their names. In health, they learn to write the names of different diseases, preventive measures, to measure body weight and height and to read and write the times for immunisations and pre-natal and post-natal care. The newly learned Hindi is immediately put to use in measuring the cloth and the size of the person, making graphs of garments, cutting and stitching according to measurement. They are also given training in marketing skills and learn to write a receipt, calculating the stock, counting the cash and giving balances through practical experience. They also learn how to approach a bank or a local government functionary for getting loans etc.

Teaching Materials, Methodology And Tools Used

  1. The Institute starts literacy with generating awareness to feel the need by motivating them in a very friendly, loving and personal atmosphere based on equal relations, not those of the teacher and the taught.
  1. A manual for trainers helps them become trained as facilitators. They are expected to possess the following qualities

Facilitators should be humble, soft-spoken, calm, and courageous.

The facilitator should be interested and service minded.

The facilitator should have a clear goal.

The facilitator should create a friendly learning atmosphere.

The facilitator should have patience as she is also an example to others.

The facilitator should be creative in teaching.

The facilitator should encourage and praise those who are studying and taking interest.

The facilitator should maintain discipline, punctuality, rules and regulations

The facilitator should serve as a role model life examples.

The facilitators and the participants in the literacy programme are equal partners. The ability to read and write is recognised as a fundamental right of every individual, either girl or boy, men or women, child or aged. Reading and writing are not the ultimate aims. In order to decrease the state of illiteracy, teaching others is the responsibility of every person.

  1. This literacy curriculum is very innovative, interesting, highly participatory, consultative, non-formal, group-oriented, and holistic with respect to other subjects and women become literate within 90 hours of direct classroom lessons.
  1. If there are some already literate or semi-literate students, they are trained as trainers to assist the illiterates and are called group co-ordinators.
  1. The Institute provides them with notebooks and pens right in the beginning so they feel empowered.
  1. Each lesson has a generative key word. Key words generate some 20 words through each key word and keep multiplying as the trainees go to subsequent lessons. Initially the vocabulary used is more related to their culture, life and their own spoken language.
  1. Each lesson in the beginning poster discussion relates to the key word for the theme of the lesson.
  1. Each key word has a creative theme that educates them on problems and solutions faced in day to day life.
  1. The Institute uses syllable cards for teaching the alphabet and words. These syllable cards are small rectangular hard board cards on which different letters are written. Each participant makes her own syllable cards, and with these cards they make the words given in the lesson. In this way, they learn the concept of how to make a word. This exercise is aimed at revision and practice.
  1. The following games are used in order to learn literacy. Some games are also used for learning and revision. As the games involve excitement, co-operation, healthy competition, fun and provide opportunities to the participants to learn among themselves at their own pace.
  1. One of the leaders points to a syllable card and asked a member of the opposite team to read it and write it correctly (challenge is the game). If the answer is correct the score keeper gives one point to that team. If the answer is wrong the team doesn’t get a point. Another game is known as word chain. For this game the whole class is divided into four groups. First group makes a word, then the next group has to make a word from one syllable of that word and make a new word. The next group also does the same. For example one starts with N or E and generates words like NAME -- NEVER -- EXIT -- TITLE -- etc.
  1. Another game is known as Challenge. Facilitators divide the whole class in two groups. Then the facilitator selects one participant in each group who can read the chart as the team leader. Each leader teaches her team all the syllables given in the lesson within 5 minutes. And the facilitator also appoints one score keeper. After everyone has participated the score keeper announces the winning team.
  1. Dictation is a really fun game. The facilitator has the discovery chart made up of syllables and calls on any of the participants to make words given by the class using the syllables they have already learned in their lessons. This is a self-evaluation process.
  1. The use of audiovisuals includes pictures with stories and a portable board of letter cards with strips of Velcro to play with. Each letter has Velcro on the back and is used to increase their quickness to form words and learn efficiently. They also use the calendar to learn dates and identify dates etc.
  1. They are encouraged to sign their name on in any embroidery they do in embroidery and they are encouraged to do theme-based drawing and develop designs. They also use video and audio.
  1. They are also trained to read and explain the poster exhibition made on different subjects by them.
  1. By the end of the course they can read and write simple sentences, prepare songs and plays on health, and the environment. Literacy in Hindi is encouraged by performing these plays and songs in public.
  1. They also learn literacy through use of role play, co-operative games and folk dances. Some of them are utilised as translators from Hindi to their own dialect and vice versa. ISRO in Ahmedabad has made five or six films on their work in the community.
  1. Each training batch starts with “My Dream Village” and concludes with decision-making to see their role in the process. David Walker, an international literacy expert, developed this method in Nepal.

Since 1993 International Literacy Day has been celebrated and organised at the local level by groups of previously trained girls from the Institute.

Some literacy trainers trained by the Institute are successfully conducting literacy programmes in Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and other parts of Madhya Pradesh.

Efforts to sustain literacy development

To prevent the trainees from falling back into illiteracy, the Institute is in constant touch with its graduates through hand written post card relationship.

Kokila: A newsletter

Another component of the literacy program is the production of a newsletter called “Kokila.” The word “Kokila” means nightingale and serves as an apt metaphor: a messenger sent from the institute to bring news and information to the villages. 1,000 copies are printed and distributed amongst the villages every month.

A source of two way information

Primary aims of “Kokila” are to i) share information of various kinds, and ii) provide reading material to sustain literacy development. Information shared relates to:

  1. the problems, needs, and issues in the women’s lives, for instance, on how to address the problem of night blindness within the community. The presentation would include a description of the problem and ways to overcome it using resources that are locally familiar and available to the community. Some issues that have been addressed and continue to be addressed in Kokila are gender equality, education of girls, importance of hygiene and health, access to loans and repaying loans, environment, family life, the importance of the local assembly, and the importance of women in society.
  1. government programs e.g. new government training programs and opportunities for women
  1. activities the Institute is involved in (e.g. various training programs, conferences attended by staff)
  1. announcements of dates of training programs offered at the Institute for women from the community.
  1. success stories and experiences of past trainees
  1. letters from readers and their replies

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