Most of the rural women lack the necessary functional skills such as reading, writing, doing basic calculations etc. They also do not have the necessary soft-skills such as communicating freely, analyzing situations, and solving problems. This project has a cadre of master trainers with the help of functional literacy training and the empowerment and development issues. Their curriculum would include language, mathematics and sessions on life skills. The Pedagogy includes discussions, Small group process, Case Study Method, Demonstration Method, Simulation Method, Role Play and Brain storming Develop a cadre of trained teachers to take up woman’s literacy centres as a new role in their existing crèches and to enhance the literacy status at least 25 women per center and hence enhancing the literacy status of the cluster also enable women with improved knowledge, attitude and skill to deal with local market and traders with strengthening the base of woman producers by improving their reading, writing and numeracy skills are the objectives of the project.
Context
Need: Tribal women suffer from high illiteracy. Due to this they are relegated to activities that are low skilled and low returns. Women cannot grow in their work and undertake value added tasks. This reduces their economic agency because, although they interact with local markets, they do so in an exploitative relationship with the more astute players. Presently, most of the rural women lack the necessary functional skills such as reading, writing, doing basic calculations etc. Rural women sell vegetables, poultry, goat or such other rural produce and are unable to calculate their prices so they easily get cheated. They also do not have the necessary soft-skills such as communicating freely, analysing situations, and solving problems. This lacuna makes the women partially or completely dependent on their families and others to perform important roles in microenterprises. As markets become ascendant and economic returns depend increasingly on being able to cater to more sophisticated markets, these women descend into greater marginalization and economic insecurity. The imperative to equip women with functional skills to take advantage of market opportunities has never been greater as now.
Rationale
Promoting enterprise and entrepreneurship among women is still underexplored, especially in tribal areas.
To ensure the above in inclusive value chains, the woman producers and entrepreneurs need to perform functions such as maintaining stock registers and cash books, analyse market information and price fluctuations for which they need to develop basic reading & writing skills, communication skills and ability to perform numerical and analytical operations. The trained entrepreneurs can scale up their businesses by employing more service providers for outreach to more customers and product/services expansion.
As a felt need it has been seen that tribal women cannot grow in their work and undertake value added tasks because they lack basic literacy as well as functional literacy skills. Presently, most of the rural women lack the necessary functional skills such as reading, writing, doing basic calculations etc. Rural women sell lac, paddy, poultry, goat or such other rural produce and are unable to calculate their prices so they easily get cheated. They also do not have the necessary soft-skills such as communicating freely, analysing situations, and solving problems.
The current project will be using 125 crèche centres where it works with tribal women producers in conflict-ridden areas to increase the literacy level of the producer woman as well as to imbibe the functional ability to them.
Scope and Coverages
Bifurcation of targets in 3 years: –
- 125 women literacy centres in 3 years (25 in 1st year, 50 in 2nd year and 50 in 3rd year targeting 25 rural women in each centre).
- 250 trained teachers in 3 years (2 at each centre handling literacy and functional literacy separately)
Objectives and Indicators
The proposed project will have the following Objectives:
- Develop a cadre of trained teachers to take up woman’s literacy centres as a new role in their existing crèches;
- To enhance the literacy status at least 25 women per centre and hence enhancing the literacy status of the cluster;
- To enable women with improved knowledge, attitude and skill to deal with local market and traders.
- To strengthen the base of woman producers by improving their reading, writing and numeracy skills;
- The proposed project will have the following Indicators:
- A cadre of 250 trained teachers created;
- Establishment of 75 literacy centres with at least 25 women producers;
- 1875 women will have improved skills in language, numeracy and life skills.
- The outreach through these service providers during the life of the project will be at least 50,000 producers,
Activities
- Creation of a cadre of 5 master trainers who would impart trainings to 250 teachers;
- Creation of a Cadre of 250 teachers trained teachers; who would be trained in teaching learning methodology so that they become eligible to take up enhancement of women’s literacy as their new role;
- Training rural women on basic as well as functional literacy to help them understand the intricacies of business and hence strengthening the producers base with improved knowledge, attitude.
Program Readiness
Results of first phase of curriculum development:
- Curriculum Features:
- It builds on the practical knowledge and life experiences of these women.
- Focus of the curriculum on the functional aspects of literacy which would directly be of use to these women in their respective enterprises and service provision.
- Flexibility of the curriculum to be delivered as per the literacy level of every woman.
- Methodology of training that makes use of various games, role plays, audio-visual materials. Case studies, songs, group discussions, use of posters etc. to make it interesting.
- Exercise sheets with each session of training.
Stakeholders:
- Selection of teachers and helpers will be done through Gram Sabha meetings, hence involving the PRI so that there is full acceptance of the teacher and helpers in the community after they become functionally literate to take up these activities.
- Stake of the community will also be built for other clusters, once the community realises the benefits of this centre that would train a cadre of various service providers required in the context of village.
- The functional literacy curriculum and delivery methodology can be used for women producers’ training across regions and states so that NGOs will become key clients for such training.
Approach and Pedagogy
Approach and pedagogy for functional literacy training:
A cadre of master trainers will be developed with the help of functional literacy training and the empowerment and development issues. Their curriculum would include language, mathematics and sessions on life skills. The Pedagogy includes discussions, Small group process, Case Study Method, Demonstration Method, Simulation Method, Role Play and Brain storming.
Programme Elements
Mobilisation:
The mobilisation for these candidates (rural women) is done through campaigning in the rural haats, Group meetings, distribution of pamphlets and posters. However, teachers are selected unanimously from Gram Sabha where all the community members accept the establishment of literacy centre.
Delivery Strategy.
Literacy centre, having maximum outreach, accessible to the trainees at least within 5 km from their village. This would be done by utilising Village level Community halls or Panchayat Bhawan.
- Period of training: 5 days a week
- Sunday & Local Hath days Holiday
- Duration: 4 hours per day
Programme staff:
- 5 trainers
- 1 M&E and documentation officer
- 1 Programme Manager
- 6 Block coordinators
- 12 Field assistants
Capacity building:
- Training of Trainers for 4 trainers
- Exposure visit (across state) of 15 selected entrepreneurs
- Cadre of trainers to be prepared for carrying forward the training process in other districts for scale up.
Monitoring and evaluation (M & E) strategies:
The training outputs will be monitored by the trainers. They will use the before and after training design for all training programs; client feedback; fees generated; and others that will be determined during the time of the initial TOT. The outcomes will be measured through client feedback, outreach, control group, self-assessments
Monitoring visits will be done by Programme Manager every month to evaluate the quality of the trainings and need for refresher trainings or special classes for the poor performers.
Assessment tools and indicators used for measuring result outcomes will include participant assessment and tests. A baseline assessment at the beginning of the course and at the end of the course (3months) will also be conducted to find the change in the status of literacy level of the participants based on the Assessment tools developed for each phase. At the end of each month there will be tests conducted for the service providers and entrepreneurs based on curriculum from which they learn. These papers will be corrected by the participants through internal circulation amongst themselves so that the participants realise mistakes are common and also learn from each other’s’ mistakes.
Documentation and Dissemination of Results:
- Training report (with feedback from participants): At the end of each training session, a one paragraph report will be prepared based on the feedback about the training from the participants. A monthly report will be prepared based on these feedbacks. These experiences of the participants and trainers will be utilised for the forthcoming training exercises to enrich the training curriculum.
- Case Studies: At least 2 Case Studies would be prepared annually based on the experiences, success stories and failure stories of the participants. These case studies would provide rich documents to learn about the various conditions and difficulties that exist with rural tribal women in their lives and how can literacy and life skill education help them overcome such obstacles. Micro, mezzo and macro level effect of this literacy curriculum on the community as a whole would be analysed to understand the impact created.
- Project Report: Project report on Half yearly and annual basis would be prepared.
- Media releases: Launching of the course, Case studies, event reports like passing out of the participants and their certification ceremonies and alumni meet ceremonies would be published in local dailies.
- Website: The launching ceremony of the course, case studies would be published on the website of the implementing organization
- Working Papers/Studies in Women’s Enterprise Promotion: A detailed impact assessment would be carried out after completion of the project period and study will be released on the website of the implementing organization.
Financial and Legal Requirements
The total grant being requested for 3 years is xxxx.
Annexure-I: Content of the curriculum on functional literacy
The training curriculum that will be developed will consist of three main parts and the broad topics covered under each part are,
Numerical Literacy-
- Numbers
- Basic Mathematical Operations
- Pricing and profit / loss
- Weight and measures and conversions of units
Language Literacy-
- Speaking
- Reading
- Writing
- Understanding on reading and writing
Life skills-
- Communication Skills
- Peer Pressure
- Negotiating Skills
- Problem Solving
- Thinking and reflective skills
- Planning Skills (Future view)
- Effects of drug addiction on family
- Family Violence and its prevention
- Health education and hygiene
- Nutrition and its necessity
- Monetary management
- Goal setting
Annexure-IV: Impact Assessment of Functional Literacy Kit:
Methodology used for Assessment:
A two-day training programme was organized in Jharkhand with the USE participants wherein on the first day ‘activity-wise benchmarking’ was done to assess their initial levels of understanding and literacy.
A baseline set of data was collected in terms of reading, writing, numerical and handling of pressure in society amongst the women entrepreneurs before the start of a three-month enterprise management course.
At the end of the trainings data was recollected amongst the same participants.
A general method of impact assessment also involved a written and oral test after 3 months of the course-ending whereby the women were specifically tested for numerical and language skills along with the impact happening as a result of the course.
