KOCHI: The Kerala State Literacy Mission’s one-of-its-kind initiative to teach Malayalam and Hindi languages to migrant workers will kick off on August 1, starting with Ernakulam district’s Perumbavoor, considered the hub of the migrant workforce in the state.
The programme involves teaching 20 students each from all the 27 wards in Perumbavoor municipality. It will start with Malayalam, before introducing Hindi coaching classes, Dr P S Sreekala, director of Kerala State Literary Mission Authority, told ‘Express’ on Thursday. She said the programme will be completed in eight months. “After the first phase of eight months, it will be rolled out to the entire state,” Sreekala said.
Earlier, the Literacy Mission had initiated such a programme for migrant workers on June 30, which had received an overwhelming response from the community. Sreekala said the programme aims to equip migrant workers with reading and writing skills in Hindi and Malayalam. As a first step, the Literacy Mission conducted a pilot project at ‘Vallam Kochangaadi Junction’ in Perumbavoor on Thursday in which 44 migrant workers took part. A large number of the participants were from Assam.
Sreekala inaugurated the programme while Perumbavoor municipal chairperson Sati Jayakrishnan presided over.The curriculum is being prepared in such a way that migrant labourers, numbering about 25 lakh in the state, can easily manage their daily language-related obstacles such as reading the name boards of buses, menu cards in hotels, price list in markets, health check-ups in hospitals, etc.
Earlier, during a survey conducted among 3,211 migrant workers in Perumbavoor, 88.24 per cent had expressed keen interest in attending the literacy classes. The survey was conducted from January 26 to 29 in Perumbavoor municipality.
“This is first time in history a literacy programme is being conducted for migrant workers. This pilot project will start taking action from next month. The migrant workers attended the trial class in Perumbavoor with enthusiasm. We took up this project to ensure the right to education for everyone in the state despite they coming from diverse parts of the country,” Sreekala said.