Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad to observe 25 yrs of total literacy campaign

Kochi: It was a movement that had the total involvement of all sections of people, irrespective of party or caste affiliations.

Ernakulam created history when on February 4, 1990, the then Prime Minister, V.P.Singh, declared the district as the first totally literate district in the country and now it’s the silver jubilee of the ambitious project which was launched on January 26, 1989, by the then Chief Minister E.K.Nayanar.

The Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) which spearheaded the movement is calling for a get-together here on Republic Day to recall the efforts taken and debate on what more can be done on the front.

“The KSSP had submitted projects for taking up literacy campaigns in 1978 and in 1986. But these did not materialise. In 1988 when K.R. Rajan was the District Collector, a detailed project was submitted to the National Literacy Mission. This was sanctioned with an outlay of Rs 80 lakh. The target was to make all the people of Ernakulam in the age group of five to 60, literate within one year,” remembers Prof P.K.Raveendran, former state president of KSSP.

Committees were formed up to ward levels first with elected representatives, officials and activists as members.

All the six lakh households of the district were surveyed on March 18 with the help of 50,000 volunteers in 12,000 squads. The number of illiterates identified was put at 1,74,624.

“To teach them 22,000 volunteers were enrolled and they worked without any remuneration. By end of June, 18,000 classes had started functioning,” recalls Prof Raveendran.

After a scientific evaluation, 1,35,254 people were made literate in the campaign. The percentage of literates above five years of age in the district stood at 96.18% at the close of the campaign and V.P.Singh made the landmark declaration.