4
AKSHARALAKSHAM
You may have difficulty in pronouncing this chapter’s title, Aksharalaksham, which could roughly be translated as the practice of chanting, and there is a nice story behind this which you may find interesting.
According to an NDTV News article posted on October 31, 2018, a 96-year-old woman Karthiyani Amma of Alappuzha district in Kerala has proved that age is just a number. She has not only cleared but topped a test under Kerala’s literacy program ‘Aksharalaksham’, scoring 98 out of 100 marks of 4th grade exam. She was the oldest candidate to take the test under the program, launched to eliminate illiteracy in the state that boasts of over 90 per cent literacy, the highest in the country.
In the exam, her reading, writing and basic mathematical skills were tested. Approximately 42,933 people cleared the test this year, taking the state closer to its aim of 100 per cent literacy.
On April 18, 1991, the state was declared fully literate, which means attaining 90 per cent literacy, as per UNESCO norms. Even though the state is the flag bearer of literacy in the country, around 18 hundred thousand people remained illiterate, the 2011 Census revealed, prompting the state government to launch the "Aksharalaksham” program on January 26, 2018.
The motto of the program is to eradicate illiteracy among marginalised communities like tribals, fisher folks and slumdwellers.
"Our motto is to eradicate illiteracy completely and achieve 100 per cent literacy in the state by all means,” Literacy Mission director PS Sreekala had said before the program was launched.
According to the survey conducted under the "Aksharalksham” project of Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority (KSLMA), the literacy rate in the state has made a significant increase of almost 3% from 93.91% in 2011 to 96.69% in 2018.