Adult literacy class enables women to sign documents

By Bijay Kumar Sah,Dhalkebar, Nov.1 : Recently, Urmila Sada, a 50-year-old resident of Musahar settlement in Pachharwa, Shahidnagar Municipality-5, Dhanusha, chose signature over thumbprint while signing documents and accessing financial services. 

Until three years ago, she was illiterate, but after attending the adult literacy class, she learned to read and write.

Urmila said that after attending the adult literacy classes she is now able to read and write both numbers and letters.

Urmila, who also serves as the chairperson of the Mithila Haruwa-Charua (bonded labour) group in the village, said, "In the past, I used to leave thumbprints in the attendance book during the group meetings. 

After successfully completing the adult literacy classes, I have chosen to use a signature instead. After being literate I feel more empowered.”

Paramdevi Sada of the same village has also stopped using her thumbprint as she did in the past. 

She said, "After learning to read and write, nobody can deceive us. Previously, we had to rely on others to read documents before providing our thumbprints, which was quite troublesome. 

Now I can read what is written in Nepali."

A total of 88 families live in the Musahar settlement of Pachharwa. The majority of these families rely on daily wage labour for their subsistence.

Paramdevi said "We have no assets apart from our homes. When we required money, we approached the landlords, and in return, we provided our thumbprints on promissory notes.”

“Since a majority of people in the village were illiterate, we were often deceived by the landlords, However, now we are literate, no one can cheat us,” she said.

Community Improvement Centre supported by the Freedom Fund UK arranged adult literacy classes for 40 women from the Musahar settlement three years ago. 

Sanjay Sah, chairman of the centre, said that adult literarcy classes were provided to nine groups consisting of 20 women in each group in Shahidnagar, Dhanouji and Ganeshman Charnath Municipalities.

Sah said, “When women are educated, it positively impacts the entire family's educational level. Therefore, the literacy programme has prioritised women as the primary target group.”

Shailendra Yadav, a local of Raghunathpur, pointed out that despite the presence of schools, the literacy rate in Madhes remains relatively low.

“A key reason behind the low literacy rate is that the significant number of marginalised communities of Madhes are illiterate,” said Yadav. 

He also asked the local authorities to initiate literacy programmes, particularly targeting women, as the illiteracy rate is poor among adult women in the province. 

“There are 18 local levels in Dhanusha district. But none of the local level seems serious when it comes to organising literacy campaigns and programmes,” he added. 

Yadav stressed that the authority has no statistics regarding the number of illiterates at both the district and local levels. 

Only Mithila Municipality has collected information on illiterate individuals and children of school-going age who are not enrolled in school. 

According to data, there are 8,872 illiterate individuals in the municipality.