Maoist-hit Dantewada in Chhattisgarh gets National Literacy Award

Hundreds have been taught to read and write with the help of a unique software in Chahhttisgarh’s Dantewada, which is the third least literate district in the country.
A teacher uses a raised mat as a blackboard to teach his students at Pandewar school in Dantewada district. (EPS)
A teacher uses a raised mat as a blackboard to teach his students at Pandewar school in Dantewada district. (EPS)

RAIPUR: The Maoist-affected Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh with poor social indicators was accorded the National Literacy Award in New Delhi on Friday.

The district chief executive officer Gaurav Singh received ‘National Literacy Award-2017’ from vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu at an event held at the Vigyan Bhawan on the occasion of International Literacy Day.

Hundreds have been taught to read and write with the help of a unique software in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada, which is the third least literate district in the country. The software called the ‘Aakhar Jhanpi’  has been designed in tribal dialects such as Halbi and Gondi, to suit the needs of the special students’.
The initiative also turned Dantewada district jail, with around 800 inmates, as the first literate prison in Chhattisgarh.

“ In over 110 gram panchayats of the district over 200 prerak (motivators) have been appointed to work on the literacy mission”, Dantewada collector Saurabh Kumar said. 

“The educated prisoners were trained as prerak. They conduct classes  for the illiterate inmates in every barrack. Now, all the jail inmates — convicted or under trial, are literate,” claimed district jail superintendent G S Sori.

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