Balwadis (Pre-School Centres)

Environmental Education in Schools

Gram Pustakalaya (Village Libraries)

Sandhya Kendra (Evening Centres)

Computer Literacy

Kishori Shikshan (Adolescent Education)

Women’s literacy and education

Preventive Health Care and Education

Gram Shikshan Kendra (Community Learning Centres)

Women’s literacy and education

The programme aimed at educating 600 women over three years, starting in 2011. However, the target of reaching out to 600 women was exceeded by the second year of implementation and the programme eventually reached out to nearly 1600 women. Out of these, 1289 women became literate (validated by formal assessment and evaluation). This target could be achieved because demand for literacy had come from the women themselves. Hence, mobilization was not an issue. Without wasting any time in campaigning for literacy, the programme directly ventured into running the centres with full community support.

The curriculum was developed in consultation with our partner organizations and experienced field workers. Understanding the nature of demand for literacy has been the most challenging issue because it was considered a critical factor in determining the structure of the curriculum. Language, awareness and demand for literacy as perceived by women, time they could spare to attend, patterns of existing knowledge and past experiences in literacy campaigns run by other organizations were some other considerations during the process of designing materials on adult female literacy.

A set of three workbooks have been designed to meet the specific needs of different categories of illiterate and semi-literate women, to ensure that every woman benefits from the programme. A pre-primer for illiterate women was also developed. The pre-primer is very popular in villages.  The literacy programme was followed up by a post-literacy campaign.