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Thousands in Kerala relapse into illiteracy

George Iype in Kochi

On April 18, 1991, 55-year old Mohammad Basheer, a carpenter living in a Muslim-dominated locality in Edapally, a Kochi suburb, was one among the 1.2 million people who learnt to read and write thanks to a massive literacy drive.

But nearly nine years after Kerala was declared India's first fully literate state, Basheer is one of the thousands of Keralites who have forgotten the alphabet and relapsed into illiteracy.

At the last count, India's first fully literate state is home to half-a-million neo-illiterates. Meanwhile, the Union territories of Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep and the northeastern state of Mizoram have zoomed past Kerala in terms of literacy percentage.

The Andamans now leads the country with 97 per cent literacy followed by Lakshadweep with 96 per cent and Mizoram with 95 per cent. Moreover, four other states of the northeast -- Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Nagaland -- have recorded the highest percentage of growth in literacy in the years between 1991-97 despite problems of insurgency and fiscal deficit. Kerala, which the World Bank has cited as a model state of development thanks to various social indices including high literacy is now behind these tiny states in the latter.

Kerala first notched the coveted position of being the most literate state following the national census in 1961 when it registered 56.85 per cent literacy against the national average of 28 per cent.

According to the national census in 1991, Kerala's literacy rate was 89.8 per cent. The state's literacy campaign that targeted 2.28 million people made the literacy rate climb up to 93 per cent, which the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation acknowledges as total literacy.

After the first phase of the literacy campaign, more than 1.2 million people had learned to read and write. But for half a million of these neo-literates it is back to square one --- they have stepped into the new millennium as illiterates. The relapse has forced the government to plan new schemes to regain its literacy stardom.

"I learnt all the Malayalam letters and managed to read and write in 30 days. But after the classes were over, the alphabet slipped away from my mind because I was busy with my daily work. No volunteers also were available to help me," Basheer told rediff.com

The state's literacy mission director M G Shashibhooshan agrees that the widespread relapse is "worrying." "It is true that there are now half a million neo-illiterates in Kerala. Bringing them all back to literacy is a daunting task," he exclaims.

Shashibhooshan offers many reasons for the relapse. "We launched our literacy campaign with much fanfare. But after the state was declared the first fully literate state in 1991, there have been no effective post-literacy campaigns to ensure that those newly literate men and women remain literate throughout," he said.

But the most important reason for the setback to the literacy drive was politics. The first phase of the literacy drive known as Akshara Keralam was launched by the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led government in 1991. The Kerala Shastra Sahitya Parishad, the world famous voluntary network, spearheaded the literacy campaign in which some 60,000 volunteers actively taught tribals and villagers how to read and write.

But the next government headed by the Congress in 1992 showed little interest in the CPI-M government's mass literacy campaign. "Moreover, the literacy volunteers were promised by the government that they would all be absorbed as teachers in state-run schools. It never happened and there are now no volunteers available for the literacy drive," points out Shashibhooshan.

According to C G Shanthakumar, former president of the Parishad and who was one of the directors of the literacy campaign in 1991, "The literacy drive in the state collapsed due to politics. The Congress dubbed the literacy drive as a CPI-M project and did not continue with it. Though the CPI-M came to back to power four years back, it has not shown any active interest to revive it these days."

"The moral of the story is simple. Don't entrust projects like literacy and health care to political parties," he stressed, adding that the need of the hour is a permanent mechanism to sustain the literacy campaign.

But N K Rajendran, an active literacy campaigner, claims that it is incorrect to claim that states like Mizoram have overtaken Kerala in literacy. "We are suspicious of Mizoram's claim that it has 95 per cent literacy. We are not sure whether the neo-literates in Mizoram are as literate as those in Kerala," he told rediff.com

"Moreover, the population of Andamans, Lakshadweep and Mizoram is insignificant compared to Kerala. Technically speaking, there is no classification based on population. So whether Kerala is first or fourth does not make much sense," he argued.

However, saddened by the fact that the Andamans, Lakshadweep and Mizoram have overtaken Kerala, the state literacy mission is reactivating the literacy campaign to ensure that those rendered illiterates relearn the alphabet.

A year back, the mission launched the Continuing Education Project, which Shashibooshan claims would ensure that all those neo-illiterates learn to read and write again.

The new project includes rigorous continuing education classes and job-oriented programmes for the neo-literates. For the first time, it also imparts technical proficiency by training the poor people in self-employment schemes like bookbinding, sewing, pickle-making and computer operations.

But the literacy mission is facing serious problems as it has only 4,000 volunteers now. "We need 15,000 dedicated volunteers to complete the project. We are faced with an acute shortage of volunteers as well as funds," the literacy mission director pointed out.

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