In what is being dubbed as the biggest event of the year for the Rotarians in the country, 10,000 students from 15 colleges in Madurai are readying themselves as volunteers who will pledge to eradicate illiteracy from India. And it is not going to be a simple event where students merely stand and take an oath. They have been training hard for the past fortnight to showcase a dynamic formation in the shape of the letter ‘L’.
The Madura College ground is abuzz with activity and getting readied for the big event on December 15 when the students will assemble to create the formation with A.R.Rahman’s “Vande Mataram” music playing in the background.
Says Saravanaraj, the District Rotaract Committee Chairman, the formation will start from one tip of the letter and the participating students will rise like a wave in the 10 minute grand spectacle to complete the formation of Letter ‘L’ that stands for Literacy.
The formation will be in the shape of a closed palm with the thumb and the forefinger stretching out like the vertical and horizontal lines of ‘L’. Carrying boards made with sunpack sheets in blue, orange, white and yellow colours, the event will culminate with the students turning their coloured panels to make the tricolour.
The Rotary International President K.R.Ravindran is likely to be present on the occasion and address the students who are pledging their support to the Rotary India Literacy Mission (RILM).
The RILM is the international service organisation’s next big project after polio eradication. The work has been divided into five sections under the acronym TEACH (i.e Teacher support, E-learning, Adult literacy, Child development and Happy schools).
The idea behind the formation, says Saravanaraj, is to kindle the thought among youths to fight illiteracy.
The 2018 target deadline of making India totally literate may be unrealistic but the Rotarians and the Rotaracts are determined to carry forward the dream of Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam of building India as a super power nation by achieving total literacy and empowering youths.
The TEACH programme has been planned in a way to ensure each child goes to a happy school, every school teacher is trained and continuously upgraded using modern technology, each child gets quality education and uses high class learning material, every adult joins the formal stream and every child or adult gets the confidence to build his /her own future.
Though the Government’s Five Year Plans, the National Literacy Mission, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the Right to Education and Constitutional amendments are contributing, albeit slowly, to the march towards 100 per cent literacy, India still has a long way to go.
Due to lower literacy level (at 74 per cent), India’s growth rate, GDP is also ranked low by international agencies. The Millennium and the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN organisations focus on literacy as a human empowerment tool. It is, therefore, imperative for every responsible citizen to join the march towards fighting illiteracy. And no better way than involving the youths in this mission.
