Kummari Lakshmi is in her late 20s. Her son Naveen has been helping her in learning Telugu alphabet whenever time permits, mostly in the evenings. She has picked up all the alphabet and “Gunintalu” (vowels and consonants). She is also being assisted by Rani, a team leader.
Karri Ramanujamma, about 45 years old, had migrated to Sangareddy from Tanuku in West Godavari about two decades ago. She never thought of educating hereself (reading and writing her mother tongue Telugu) as she had the task of running her family. She is a member of the Hanuman Village Organisation.
“We blindly rejected the proposal to learn the Telugu alphabet when the village organisation assistant proposed it. Do we really need to learn the alphabet at this age? What for?” was the first response from women like Ramanujamma when the Self Help Group (SHG) members proposed the idea of women learning at home, an idea initiated by Collector Manickraj Kannan.
“Our proposals were rejected outright. No one came forward to collect the material stating that they do not need any education. We had persuaded them that they can read papers, count and need not depend on anyone to know something. After some time they got convinced and now they are leaning very fast and the response from many SHG members is more than encouraging,” said Ayyavari Tulasi, Village Organisation Assistant, who is instrumental in motivating the members to learn.
Out of the 370 members of the VO, only 26 are yet to learn alphabet.
In the case of Ambedkar group of Pothireddypally, there are as many as 170 members out of the total 420 who do not know the alphabet. Fifty-five year-old G. Chandramma has been learning the alphabet with the help of nine-year-old Abhinavachary, residing next door.
