Getting Across to Women through Adult Educ ation - Presentation on Approach Paper

1. Getting Across to Women through Adult Education -Presentation on Approach Paper A. M. Rajashekhar Joint DirectorDirectorate of Adult Education, Government of India NATIONAL LITERACY MISSION AUTHORITY

2. Synopsis of Presentation • Context • Saakshar Bharat – An Overview • MoUbetween the ECI and NLMA • Electoral Literacy under NLMA’s Interpersonal Media Campaign • Pilot Campaign exclusively on Electoral Literacy in Rajasthan • Experiences from Other States • Concluding Remarks NATIONAL LITERACY MISSION AUTHORITY

3. 1. Context • The Constitution of India: • Enshrines principle of gender equality • Recognises prevailing gender inequalities • Allows positive discrimination in favour of women to bridge gender inequalities • Numerous legislative, programme and policy measures have been taken to bridge gender inequalities since adoption of the Constitution in 1950 • Yet gender gaps continue to persist and women lags behind in following areas too: • Literacy and Education • Electoral Participation NATIONAL LITERACY MISSION AUTHORITY

4. 1. Context contd. … • Gender Gap in Literacy Male and Female Literacy rates are 82.14% and 65.46% respectively as per Census 2011. A gap of 16.68 percentage points • Gender Gap in Electoral Participation • With exception of 1984, polling percentage of women has always remained lower compared with men in general elections from 1952 - 1991 • Women’s ratio as registered voters was 47.7% against 48% in country’s total population in 2009 • Voter’s turn out rates were 55.82% and 60.24% women and men respectively in 2009 Above concerns lead the Election Commission of India and National Literacy Mission Authority to sign a MoU incorporating ‘Electoral Literacy’ in programme activities of Saakshar Bharat – a flagship programme NATIONAL LITERACY MISSION AUTHORITY

5. 2. Saakshar Bharat – An Overview ‘Saakshar Bharat’ (SB): • a flagship programme launched by the Prime Minister on 8th Sept.2009 • objective is to impart basic literacy, basic education, vocational education and lifelong education to over 70 million persons • beneficiaries comprise of more than 80% women and a substantive number of SCs, STs and Muslims NATIONAL LITERACY MISSION AUTHORITY

6. 2. Saakshar Bharat – An Overview ‘Saakshar Bharat’ (SB): • is being implemented in rural areas of low female literacy districts through Panchayati Raj Institutions • each Gram Panchayat is provided with an Adult Education Centre (AEC or ‘LokShiksha Kendra’) managed by 2 ‘Preraks’ (motivators) • in operation in 372 districts including some extremist affected districts NATIONAL LITERACY MISSION AUTHORITY

7. 3. MoU between the ECI and NLMA Under the MoU signed on 21 May 2013 between the ECI and NLMA The NLMA will: • Include Electoral Literacy in its curriculum for adult Literacy and Basic education • Design and developIEC material on themes related to electoral literacy • Include messages on electoral literacy in Environment Building and Mass Mobilization Campaigns • Focus on different stakeholders in Saakshar Bharat to bring about positive change in their awareness, attitude and behavior viz-a-viz Citizenship, Democracy and Electoral Process, with specific focus on electoral registration and informed and ethical voting • Extend assistance to the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and the Booth Level Officers to identify and enroll the eligible voters ordinarily residing in the polling station area NATIONAL LITERACY MISSION AUTHORITY

8. 3. MoU between the ECI and NLMA And the ECI will: • Provide technical guidance and assistance in designing activities and contents related to Electoral Literacy • Depute Resource Persons for Campaign activities including for capacity building of field functionaries and activists of Saakshar Bharat mission • Share and permit use of Information Education Communication (IEC) material developed by ECI • Suitably direct Booth Level Officers, Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and District Election Officers (DEOs) to coordinate with Mission functionaries NATIONAL LITERACY MISSION AUTHORITY

9. 4. Electoral Literacy under NLMA’s Interpersonal Media Campaign Interpersonal Media Campaign • NLMA has designed an Interpersonal Media Campaign(IPMC) for 1,00,000 Gram Panchayats • Electoral Literacy is one of the themes of IPMC and a step towards implementation of MoU with the ECI NATIONAL LITERACY MISSION AUTHORITY

10. 4. Electoral Literacy under NLMA’s IPMC contd. … Objectives: • 100 % Enrolment of Women and Youth in Voter Lists of GPs • Enhanced voting percentages in all electoral processes in GPs Strategy: • AECs – to serve as access points of information, education and services • Preraks – to act as information givers and service providers • State Literacy Mission Authorities – are implementing agencies • State Resource Centres – are academic and technical resource support and develop pilot models NATIONAL LITERACY MISSION AUTHORITY

11. 4. Electoral Literacy under NLMA’s IPMC contd. … Activities: • Idea Building and Conceptual Clarity – consultations with the ECI and in-house were held; concept papers developed and discussed; and ‘way ahead’ laid down. 2. Consensus Building among State level Stakeholders – blue prints of objectives, purpose and strategy were shared with state level stakeholders and consensus developed including at a Meeting of Ministers and Principle Secretaries in-charge of Adult Education NATIONAL LITERACY MISSION AUTHORITY

12. 4. Electoral Literacy under NLMA’s IPMC contd. … 3. Sub Group for Development of Strategy and Materials – Set up a Sub Group of 4 SRCs. The group suggested following - Strategy Points • Periodic information and awareness campaigns about voter rights and importance of vote • Education in small groups about procedures of voter registration and vote casting • Access to counselling and services at local level • Training of managers and delivery personnel NATIONAL LITERACY MISSION AUTHORITY

13. 4. Electoral Literacy under NLMA’s IPMC contd. … 4. Sub Group for Development of Strategy and Materials contd. … The Sub Group with support of domain experts prepared following materials: - • Resource Book (1) • Flash Cards Sets - Voter Registration and Vote Casting procedures • Posters (9) • Slogans (36) • Songs (4 audio recordings) • Radio Jingle (3) • Radio Spots (8) • SMS Messages (7) • Modular Training Manual (1) NATIONAL LITERACY MISSION AUTHORITY

14. 4. Electoral Literacy under NLMA’s IPMC contd. … 5. Vetting of Materials by the ECI -accuracy and presentation of information and images of IEC material have been vetted by the ECI 6. Translation and Adaptation of Materials – considering large number of Hindi speaking states, master copies have been developed in Hindi and shared with non Hindi speaking states for adaptation and translation in local languages 7. Creation of Pool of Key Resource Persons (KRPs) and Training Strategy - A pool of Key Resource Persons (drawn from all SRCs) trained with support of the ECI. KRPs will train Master Trainers (MTs) who in turn will orient GP Presidents for programme management and train Preraks for programme delivery NATIONAL LITERACY MISSION AUTHORITY

15. 4. Electoral Literacy under NLMA’s IPMC contd.… 7. Implementation Strategy • Electoral literacy will form part of SB’s motivation and mobilisation campaigns • Preraks and Literacy Volunteer will also join ECI’s Systematic Voter Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) campaign • Prerakswill conduct voter education sessions with organised groups of women in GPs (literacy classes, Aganwadis, KishoriMandals, MahilaMandals, Self Help Groups etc.) • AECs to function as Information and Resource Centres for electoral literacy • Electoral literacy will be integrated in curriculum and activities of the adult education programmes • In spirit of mutual cooperation, the ECI and NLMA will draw up on each other’s resources at national, state, district and panchayat levels 8. Monitoring Periodic reviews athigh level are planned to ensure achievement of stated objectives NATIONAL LITERACY MISSION AUTHORITY

16. 5. Pilot Campaign exclusively on Electoral Literacy in Rajasthan • A Pilot campaign launched with support of Chief Electoral Officer, SLMA and SRCs of Rajasthan in Sept – Nov 2013 • Campaign covered 8800+ GPs in 31 SB districts in Rajasthan • Master Trainers and Preraks were trained • IEC materials printed and used in adopted blocks • Preraks assisted BLOs in Voter Registration campaigns • Information on process and outcome are awaited NATIONAL LITERACY MISSION AUTHORITY

17. 6. Experiences from Other States • SRCs of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh also initiated electoral literacy activities in their adopted blocks in November 2013 • Preliminary data of polling percentages in latest Assembly Elections in ‘adopted blocks’ districts of Madhya Pradesh given in following table is encouraging NATIONAL LITERACY MISSION AUTHORITY

18. 7. Concluding Remarks • objectives set by the ECI and NLMA are complimentary to each other i.e. empowering women to become equal partners in development and governance • A carefully designed and systematically implemented literacy campaign with integrated electoral literacy, has the potential to achieve this goal NATIONAL LITERACY MISSION AUTHORITY

19. THANKS NATIONAL LITERACY MISSION AUTHORITY