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Learning to click ‘t’
before crossing it
Arvinder Kaur
WHEN
Jayamani from Keshampet, a hamlet in Andhra Pradesh and her 14 Mandal
Samakhya co-workers set out to learn the language of computers, it
seemed like an almost impossible task. Could these unschooled women,
untouched by literacy, pull it off?
Well, these special group
of women were able to catch the literacy bus, jump on to the computer
knowledge bandwagon, without having learnt to dot their i’s and cross
their t’s, thanks to a pilot project initiated by the state
government, Velugu, in collaboration with NIIT, an IT solutions
provider.
The project helped
transform Telugu-speaking, agricultural wage labourers to ‘mouse
toting’ Mandal leaders, geared up to become a part of tomorrow’s
India.
Velugu, meaning light, was
started to teach illiterate women basic spoken English and simple IT
skills. It is also a poverty alleviation project, being implemented by
the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), an autonomous body
set up by Andhra CM N. Chandrababu Naidu.
Says Meera Shenoy, state
project advisor, SERP, who conceived the project: "The rural poor
realise that learning spoken English and IT skills links them with the
outside world. This pilot is one step forward in Velugus’ initiative
to help the rural women dialogue directly with the partners — be they
the market, government functionaries or service providers."
The seven-day residential
programme helped the women bridge the digital divide and enter the realm
of Excel sheets, power point presentations in Telugu, liberally peppered
with English. "Today, these Mandal Samakhya leaders can fill up
bank slips in English and create power point presentations for the
Velugu project," Shenoy says.
Recalls an NIIT
instructor. "It was same as a group of school children attending a
classroom session. Learning was imparted through pictures, posters and
other simple things. Using these, the instructors were able to equip the
learners with basic English vocabulary and a smattering of commonly used
expressions."
Experiencing the computer,
however, was the high point of their literacy voyage, he says. From
using Excel and word to navigating through power point, IT learning
virtually happened at the click of a mouse.
Says Surendra Mohan,
project director, Velugu. "I was amazed at how soon the women
picked up the skills. Now they maintain their accounts using Excel and
independently make power point presentations to all visitors."
"While they are yet
to take a trip down the information superhighway (Internet), the
availability of a regular
power and computer with cyber access, will soon convert this dream into
a reality," he says.
Velugu is also working
with the poorest of the poor, mostly women in 22 districts of Andhra
Pradesh and is funded by the World Bank. It has a partnership cell,
STEER, which helps the project link with corporates, foundations and
NGOs to reach out to the poor.
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