IndiaCSR News Network
LUCKNOW: Dignity Education of Devi Sansthan is organizing a National Level Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) summit. The National summit combines a packed program of speakers and panel discussions covering the most important issues and opportunities to counter the persistent and growing problem of illiteracy in India. The program is targeted to make India literate, starting with UP. In UP,the first district to be made totally literate is Lucknow. District administration and the State Government have already initiated steps towards Dignity Education’s Global Dream implementation. Speakers of summit are Alok Ranjan,chief secretary UP Govt, GB Patnaik and Sunita Gandhi of Global dream movement.
The CSR support will be an integral part of the mission towards total literacy and the meeting will discuss an effective way engage the CSR community. The National CSR Summit on Literacy and Education is being organized as per attached information to seek participation of the CSR community, so that with the participation of the corporate community, we can truly create an effective movement and scale it up across India.
In Section 135 of the Companies Act, literacy is directly correlated to the first 6 of the 10 items for CSR investment. It is one initiative that has multiple impart. It has the highest return for each dollar invested, compared to almost anything else that an investment can accomplish. Your participation is invited and we most look forward to your presence at the forthcoming and most.
The National CSR Summit on Literacy and Education will focus on the most urgent actions that are needed to counter the problem of illiteracy and improve the quality of education of the masses. In particular, the potential of Global Dream -An initiative by Dignity Education to accelerate literacy and improve the quality of education will be examined.
India has widespread illiteracy (25.6 %) (Census 2011) It also has 37.4% of world’s illiterate adults (UNESCO).
:There are some disturbing trends that make the problem of illiteracy particularly severe:
-The government’s National Literacy Mission’s Literacy campaigns across India (Central Government scheme), is the only the only agency active in the field of making India Literate. However covers some 597 of India’s districts, of which 67 are untouched. (Govt data). Lucknow, for example, is one of such 7 districts in UP that have no government program for literacy (central or state). This means that these districts will continue to deepen in their illiteracy levels.
-There is no program for India’s children who are out-of school. Though government puts in effort to enroll them, many children’s reality does not them to attend school. These are children of migrant laborers, beggar children, school dropouts and others. These are the most vulnerable of all groups, along with the girl child and women who will be the main beneficiaries of an effective literacy program.
-Though children are technically enrolled, many of them do not attend school, and those that do, do not learn as much as they need to.
-The data shows a decline in literacy levels since 2009 at government schools, indicating the situation is getting worse.
Global Dream offers tremendous opportunity to accelerate the level of literacy. It takes less than four months of 15-30 minute sessions to make a learner both literate and numerate in a typical NLM program.
Over hundred people have become members of the Global Dream’s Advisory Committee. As a start, a survey to identify target populations was conducted by the government’s primary and junior school teachers in the Karouni village. This experiment will be replicated throughout the district of Lucknow. The Central Government’s Department of Pensions has begun collaboration with Global Dream and have had their first meeting of Pensioners .Over hundred pensioners have offered to volunteer and supervise literacy initiatives.
The New APP for Global Dream will be launched at this CSR Summit on Literacy and Education, With Global Dream and its new APP, this is also a highly scalable option capable of making a huge impact in a short time. The toolkit is also being made in 14 Indian languages for scaling up across India. Pilots have already begun in Gujarat, with the collaboration of Rotary International, India
National CSR Summit on LITERACY and EDUCATION
DATE :MONDAY 2 March 2015
TIME : 10:00 AM TO 4:30 PM
Venue :CMS Auditorium Gomti Nagar Lucknow
REGISTRATION : Pre -Register before 26 February 2015
VISIT: www.dignityeducation.org/CSR
