The Literacy Project

Studying various Literacy initiatives.

Some pointers from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_India:

• Mizoram: The government identified illiterates and organized an administrative structure that engaged officials and community leaders, and manned by "animators" who were responsible for teaching five illiterates each
• Tamil Nadu took an approach to promoting literacy based on free lunches for schoolchildren, "ignoring cynics who said it was an electoral gimmick and economists who said it made little fiscal sense. 20 million receive free lunches in Indian schools every day, making it the largest school meal program in the world
• Kerala undertook a "campaign for total literacy in Ernakulam district in the late 1980s," with a "fusion between the district administration headed by its Collector on one side and, on the other side, voluntary groups, social activists and others." On February 4, 1990, the Government of Kerala then replicated the initiative on a statewide level, launching the Kerala State Literacy Campaign. First, households were surveyed with door-to-door, multistage survey visits to form an accurate picture of the literacy landscape and areas that needed special focus. Then, Kala Jathas (cultural troupes) and Saksharta Pad Yatras (Literacy Foot Marches) were organized to generate awareness of the campaign and create a receptive social atmosphere for the program. An integrated management system was created involving state officials, prominent social figures, local officials and senior voluntary workers to oversee the execution of the campaign.

Pointers on challenges:

1. Extensive impoverishment, entrenched hierarchical social divisions and the lack of correlation between educational attainment and job opportunities are often cited in studies of the hurdles literacy programs face in Bihar.
   
2. Children from "lower castes" are frequently denied school attendance and harassed when they do attend.
   
3. In areas where there is no discrimination, poor funding and impoverished families means that children often cannot afford textbooks and stationery.
   
4. When children do get educated, the general lack of economic progress in the state means that government jobs are the only alternative to farm labor, yet these jobs, in practise, require bribes to secure - which poorer families cannot afford.
5. This leads to educated youths working on the farms, much as uneducated ones do, and leads parents to question the investment of sending children to school in the first place.
6. Bihar's government schools have also faced teacher absenteeism, leading the state government to threaten withholding of salaries of teachers who failed to conduct classes on a regular basis.
7. To incentivize students to attend, the government announced a Rupee 1 per schoolday grant to poor children who show-up to school.

That does give some idea. Now, onto taking some actions!