The Vatta Muthampatti village panchayat in the district has won the prestigious National Literacy Award for the successful implementation of the adult literacy (Karkum Bharatham) programme-2016.
Vatta Muthampatti is the only village panchayat in Tamil Nadu to win this prestigious national award.
Of the total population of 3,929, a total of 3,159 women in the age group of 14-35 years were found to be illiterates a few years ago. All the illiterates have now become literates thanks to the implementation of the Central Government sponsored ‘Karkum Bharatham’ (Saakshar Bharat), an adult literacy programme exclusively for women.
Raja alias Killivalavan, president of the Vatta Muthampatti panchayat, received the coveted ‘Saakshar Bharat National Literacy Award” from Pranab Mukherjee, President of India, in the presence of Prakash Javedekar, Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister, at a function held in connection with the Adult Literacy Day in New Delhi recently.
The ‘Karkum Bharatham’ programme implemented by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development was introduced in Salem district in October 2010 with the objective of covering more than 3.51 lakh illiterate women in the age group of 14-35 years.
Salem is one of the nine districts in Tamil Nadu where this programme is under implementation.
The illiterate women of Vatta Muthampatti panchayat were identified through special campaigns and imparted training in basic literacy at the Karkum Bharatham literacy centres. Specially trained Plus-Two completed youths were selected as resource persons.
The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), New Delhi, and the National Literacy Mission (NLM) conducted the examinations twice a year in March and October since this programme was introduced in the district, on behalf of the HRD Department, to assess the basic literacy talent admitted to the literacy centres. After the examinations, it declared that all the 3,159 women of the district have completed the literacy programme and emerged successful in the examinations. It declared Vatta Muthampatti as a totally literate village panchayat.
All the 3,159 women have been declared as ‘certified learners’ now, according to D. Thangavelu, district coordinator of the Karkum Bharatham programme.
Successful candidates were given certificates by the NIOS.
Second time
The Salem district has achieved the rare distinction of receiving the national level ‘Saakshar Bharat National Literacy Award’ for the second year in succession.
The tribal Palamalai village panchayat in Kolathur block received the award last year, followed by the Vatta Muthampatti panchayat this year.
During both the years, Salem is the only district to receive this award this year, even though the ‘Karkum Bharatham’ programme is under implementation in nine districts in the State for the past five years.
This is a rare distinction, said Dr. Thangavelu, district coordinator of Karkum Bharatham.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by Syed Muthahar Saqaf / Salem – September 27th, 2016