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SHGs can promote functional literacy

Sep 2008
The Self Help Group (SHG) model of development launched in the 1980s has since come a long way under continued patronage of the central and state governments, NABARD, and NGOs. The programme is today the most effective weapon for social change and eradication of problems like poverty and illiteracy.     
 
The SHGs are based on the concept of community participation for sustainable development and are potential catalysts in the empowerment of women especially in promoting literacy.  
 
It is noteworthy that the literacy rate in India has increased from 16.7% in the year 1951 to the present about 68%. However, while the male literacy rate has gone up to 75.85% during the decade 1991-2001, the female literacy rate has gone up only by 54.16% during the same period.
 
“The self-supported SHGs which have been formed by the efforts of various national and international NGOs like CRS, UNICEF and OXFAM and which  have been a great success can be used as engines for promoting literacy in women”, says Sarvodaya Sewa Ashram, Secretary and Executive Head, Abhimanyu Singh. “The concept of literacy should not be confined to the teaching of 3Rs only. It must go beyond to include functional literacy to make the women aware of their rights and duties,” he adds.
 
Several NGOs have initiated literacy campaigns in villages via the SHG model. In order to educate women the most educated members of the families in a village can opt to act as volunteers for the literacy campaign. Encouragement for voluntarism should be given by family members, Panchayat Council members etc. It has been found that the social status and respectability of the volunteers increases and they are increasingly able to interfere in the decision making of family affairs of the members.
 
Women learners find literacy classes a welcome break in between long hours of tedious household works. Further it has been found that literacy programmes in the SHGs are packed with a lot of fun and activities such as group dancing and singing thus drawing out a lot of women from their households.
 
For sustenance of the SHG programme aiming at empowerment of women, its linkage with literacy is of foremost importance. Literacy for empowerment and empowerment for literacy is the golden formula to adopt.

  
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1 Comments >>
pankaj kumar
24 Nov 2012 (05:34:12)
how to join shg programme and get a certificate or working description of this programme.please response me as soon as possible