Ahmedabad learns literacy is a survival tool

Literacy is a thread that holds together the fabric of modern society. On the occasion of the International Literacy Day today, the theme “the power of literacy and literacy for all” is being strictly implemented across our nation.

According to the United National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the definition of literacy and a literate person is wide and does not stop at the ability to read and write only. A literate person is one who can with understanding both read and write a short, simple statement relevant to his everyday life.

The National Literacy Mission in India defines literacy as acquiring the skills of reading, writing and arithmetic, and the ability to apply them to one’s day-to-day life. However, even today, according to the UN Millennium Development Goals indicators, the literacy rate in India is below the global threshold of 75 per cent. However, there are some who are playing their part for society by educating children through all possible means. DNA profiles two such educationists who are ordinary men trying to bring about extraordinary change.

Shafi
It is 9 am on a dusty September morning at the Imrata Sariya Colony in Ahmedabad. Like every day over the past five years, Shafikuddin Sharifuddin Shaikh, or Shafi as he is known, sets out on a mission. He talks animatedly to a group of 30 children who gather around him eagerly. “You must go to school,” he urges the children and a few parents.

“These are areas where the riots wreaked the worst havoc in the aftermath of the Godhra train burning. People have seen their loved ones torn away, burnt, killed, and raped before their own eyes. It is a trauma that is not easy to get over,” said the 24-year-old Shafi. Poverty has forced parents to remove their children from schools so that they can work in order to manage a decent meal for the day, he said.

Shafi, a Child Rights and You (CRY) fellow working on educating children in Sarkhej and Juhapura, grew up this very colony, in a family living in abject poverty. But, unlike many others, surviving the riots forced him to think deeper about the condition of those around him. “Education is the key to rising from poverty and the state of marginalisation these people find themselves in. So I go from colony to colony, talking about the premium the world outside places on getting an education,” he said.

In light of the nightmare that they have lived through together, trust does not come easily to the riot-affected of Ahmedabad. Shafi talks about secularism as a way to function as an aligned community and risks the wrath of the fundamentalists. Awareness on communal issues facing the community, he feels, will ensure that children do not participate in breeding the hate that has percolated down the generations. In addition to talking to the children, he visits a school nearby and interacts with the teachers and midday meal caterers, ensuring that they understand how vital their role is in the lives of the children.

For this unconventional teacher who imparts lessons on hope, every child who goes to school is a step forward for a secular and rational society with no scope for hatred. And this is a luxury he hopes to provide to the children who easily recognise hate as a word associated with the majority community and for him, the meaning of making someone ‘literate’ in the true essence is through this.

On International Literacy Day, it is very important to recognise Shafi as an individual who has set out to correct the wrongs he perceives are due to a lack of knowledge and aims to ensure education for all.

Raman Soni
Raman Soni is a retired teacher from Modasa who, at the age of 69 years, continues to teach the children in his area — by singing and dancing. He believes that what children in India need is not the ‘chalk and talk’ method under the strict disciplinarian ‘regime’ of teachers over students.

The students, he said, need to be taught with an ease that comes only through rhythm, which he imparts through toys, charts and songs he has designed for every subject, from mathematics to science and English. “Children as young as 14 and 15 years have started suffering from diseases such as diabetes because of all the stress and pressure they face from every side - be it home or school,” he said.

Soni, who has more than 12 national teaching awards to his name, has been a light of inspiration to thousands of students. He started teaching in 1960 and believes that his method is the most useful and easy as it provides mass education.

“Our country is falling behind other developing countries when it comes to education. We blame the government for the declining literacy rate in our country, but we as individuals don’t do anything to teach others around us. Today, we must make a promise to ourselves to share our education with as many illiterate people as we can. Literacy is not just about learning; it is a tool to eliminate poverty and a means for social and human development. It is the best way to enlighten the future generation and in turn society,” he said.