THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As rain starts splattering on the tin roof of Vanchiyoor Football Club on Thursday, the 70-odd audience who assembled there were eagerly waiting for their ‘teacher’. Upon his arrival, the audience all of a sudden fell silent and were all ears for the lesson that he has to offer to them.
Whereas the ‘teacher’, as usual, in his inimitable style of animated gestures, voice modulation and asking questions and engages the audience - a mix of teenagers, youngsters and senior citizens - with ease.
In the thick of the action was none other than Education Minister C Raveendranath, as he released the 15-page handbook ‘Jalam Paristhithi Saksharathapadam-1’, as part of Kerala State Literary Mission Authority’s (KSLMA) campaign on water literacy. Ranging from the importance of water in the human body to how nature conserves water, the minister in his one-hour class had stressed the need to conserve water bodies.
“The idea is simple. If we want to maintain the equilibrium of our body then we must have to maintain the equilibrium of nature. Our role must be to protect and conserve the natural resources rather than exploiting it unscrupulously,” said the minister. Earlier, briefing about the initiative, KSLMA director P S Sreekala said the intent of coming out with such a campaign was to spread awareness regarding water conservation.
“Around 70,000 learners who were enrolled for SSLC and Higher Secondary equivalency courses with the KSLMA will become part of this campaign.
For its successful implementation, the campaign has been made part of their course,” said Sreekala. According to the director, as part of the campaign, each learner is mandated to teach at least 15 persons living near his/her locality on water conservation. “These 15 persons means one person from each family. Thus each learner will cover 15 persons from 15 families. Around 10 lakh learners will take part in this campaign,” adds Sreekala.
At the same time, the KSLMA authorities said that for the water literacy campaign a module has been chalked out, which is in line with the objectives of the Haritha Keralam Mission.“To make people understand better about water literacy we had released a 15-page handbook consisting of 16 chapters. Through illustrations and questionnaire we try to impart lessons on the importance of water, how to check water pollution, how to conserve water in a scientific manner and laws related to water conservation and others,” said an officer with KSLMA.