| Campaigning for
India’s Literacy |
By Sabrina
Enayatulla 
Observer Staff Writer |
| According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the estimated
population of the United States in 2010 will be 309
million. |
| Now imagine this. |
| Every single man, woman and child making up that number
cannot read or write. |
| India has more than three times the population of the
United States, and when statistics say that 30 percent of
people in India are illiterate, it sounds like quite an
accomplishment. But in reality, the 30 percent of unlettered
people tips the scales at close to 300 million people, almost
the entire population of the United States. |
| In a nation-wide effort to abolish illiteracy in India,
the India Literacy Project has been fund raising across the
United States for the past 15 years to create programs to
promote literacy in India. ILP India, the other half of the
project located in Bangalore, has also partnered with UNICEF
and is working with other government non-profit organizations
in India to work on campaigns toward 100 percent literacy in
the country. |
| The Washington, D.C. chapter of ILP will hold a Golf
Tournament for Literacy at the Reston National Golf Course on
Saturday, April 29, to raise money for literacy
advocacy. |
| Rajesh Chandran, Sonnicca Dogra, Neena Sawant and Debasis
Nandy are volunteers for the Washington, D.C. chapter of ILP
who are dedicating their time, effort and money for a cause
that they feel is more than worthy. |
| "You read and hear a lot about India and its super
economic growth, but one in four children are child laborers,"
Chandran, chapter coordinator for ILP’s D.C. chapter
said. |
| Chandran, originally from Chennai, India, previously known
as Madras, works as a network design architect for Verizon in
Reston. He said the reason most children end up working in
child labor factories is because the families need the income,
and without an education these children have little way of
understanding their rights and responsibilities in the
society. |
| "We want to focus on women and make them functionally
literate and help them set up small businesses," Chandran
said. |
| Dogra, originally from New Deli now lives in Reston and is
a senior specialist with Perot Systems. Dogra said women are
the backbone of the family and educating them is a key
component in promoting literacy in generations to come. |
| Nandy is also a volunteer with ILP’s local chapter and
said that although India has the largest middle class in the
world, most of those people are illiterate and earn less than
$1.00 a day. Many of the villagers have larger families
because each additional person means additional income. |
| Nandy said growing up in India, poverty was a norm. He
said seeing it every day, it was easy to become accustomed to
the conditions, but realizes now that it is time to give back.
"We don’t need a reason for why we should promote literacy,"
he said. "It is important all over the world. But we want to
help India because we’re Indians." |
| ILP, which is an all volunteer-driven non-profit
organization, works with NGOs in India to request funding and
works with the Indian government rather than creating a
parallel infrastructure. |
| In 2001, the 86th amendment to the Indian Constitution was
made which states that all children from age six to 14 will
have the right to a free and compulsory education. With ILP
promoting literacy throughout the country, families with small
children in villages will be able to understand what the laws
say and mean. Each village has self appointed leaders who will
assist in any way they can to make sure that the vicious cycle
of illiteracy is broken. |
| Chandran said UNICEF is working to track the progress of
the children taken out of sweat shops and put in bridge
schools. He added that the simple construction of toilets in
the schools brought more girls to class. |
| Sawant, another volunteer, is a native of Mumbai, India.
She and her husband Nandu work with ILP said she said it is an
important organization, especially for the children. Sawant
has two children of her own and has lived in the U.S for 16
years. Sawant is a substitute teacher for Fairfax
County. |
| ILP uses the method of empowering the people from a
grassroots level and then moving from the bottom up. The
volunteers agreed that when you use a top-down method,
somewhere in the middle, funds, aid and purpose are lost.
|
| Ultimately, ILP would like to raise awareness about
literacy in India across the globe and work toward 100 percent
literacy throughout the region. |
| |
