Over seven lakh families in the district will be educated on the basic principles of the Constitution as part of The Citizen, a constitution literacy campaign jointly organised by the Kollam district panchayat, District Planning Committee, and the Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA).
The first of its kind initiative in the State, the target is to declare Kollam a totally Constitution literate district on August 14 midnight. “Indian Constitution, the most-elaborate in the world, is the supreme law of the nation. Though the document clearly defines the rights and responsibilities of each citizen, very few are clearly aware of it even after 72 years. It is an attempt to ensure that we, as the citizens of India, are able to understand and uphold the integral values advocated by our constitution,” says V. Sudesan, Deputy Development Commissioner and faculty, KILA.
As part of the campaign, the entire population of Kollam above the age of 10 will be briefed on the preamble of the Constitution and the historical background of the document, its basic principles, fundamental rights of citizens, and legal remedies. Everyone, including government institutions, private establishments, socio-cultural organisations, and educational institutions, will be made participants while local bodies will spearhead the campaign.
“The idea is to equip the people to uphold constitutional values in personal life, family life, and socio-political, economic, and cultural life,” he adds.
Around 20 to 25 individuals from each municipality and 10 to 15 persons from each grama panchayat will be selected for training and they will be called senators. The Kollam Corporation will have 100 to 150 senators and KILA will select all senators as per specific guidelines. Squads of trained senators will be formed and they will offer two to three sessions for each family. Support of socio-cultural organisations will be sought in coordinating activities at each ward.
Since students are a target section, special handbooks will be prepared and distributed through educational institutions. In the second phase, five forums from equality forum to the district-level secular forumwill be constituted.
“Equality forum is the basic unit that includes families and they will be taught about the Constitution in the simplest terms. A specially designed preamble of the Constitution in Malayalam and a handbook prepared by KILA will be distributed to all families and institutions in Kollam in the final stage,” adds Mr.Sudesan.
