Ekal Vidyalay shows the way by conducting ‘Balamela’ for tribal children

Ekal Vidyalay in Andhra Pradesh conducted children conference “Balamela”on 18th Apr 2010 Palamur Anchal, Nawabpet Sanch, in Andhra Pradesh for children from tribal regions.

From 24 villages 610 students and 183 samiti members participated in this programme. On this occasion local MLA Sri Chandra Sekhar inaugurated the function.Janahita General Secretary Uday Khardekar alongwith Sri Kiran Kumar, Vijaya Bhaskar, Kishore,Sridhar Reddy,  Satyamji and Ramakant participated in the function.

While it is making giant advances in software, space, and nuclear power, India is paradoxically still struggling with questions of basic literacy for a large segment of its population. Upon independence, India’s literacy rate was a staggering 11 percent. Since then, we have made tremendous advances in educating our people. Still, more than six decades after independence, 65.4% India is still illiterate. Even worse off is the position of tribal India, which has a literacy rate below 30 percent.

The Ekal Vidyalaya movement aims to help eradicate illiteracy from rural and tribal India by 2011. To date, Ekal Vidyalaya is a movement of over 26,719 teachers, 5,000 (Approximately) voluntary workers, 22 field organizations (scattered in 22 Indian states), and 8 support agencies as on January 2009. With this tremendous human force, the Ekal Vidyalaya movement strives to create a network of non-formal schools that will educate and empower children in rural and tribal India.

The Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation is a charitable trust that initiates, supports, and runs non-formal one-teacher schools (popularly known as Ekal Vidyalayas) all over the country. With the participation of numerous non-profit trusts and organizations, this program has now become the greatest non-governmental education movement in the country.

While Indians have succeeded in flexing their intellectual prowess and in establishing entrepreneurship throughout the world, over a third of India’s population is illiterate. Tribal villagers who live in remote areas away from major cities are the worst affected. Often unreachable by road and untouched by electricity, the tribal population is often neglected by agencies of development. The Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation, therefore, has focused its primary education programs on tribals and other underprivileged communities in rural India.

Ekal Vidyalaya goes beyond mere literacy. Apart from its goal of achieving the national standards of Minimum Level of Learning (MLL) for its students, Ekal Vidyalaya also seeks to empower the village community for its own self-development. Ekal Vidyalaya solicits complete involvement of the local community and aims at making the school self-reliant in a period of five to seven years.

The donors, supporters and workers of Ekal Vidyalaya are motivated by a commitment to educate our illiterate brothers and sisters. Their unflinching dedication to serve their motherland is the key to it’s  success.