Global Literacy Project—South India Programs

Project Site Background: INDIA: SOUTH-INDIA: Tamil Nadu

India is a nation that has made great strides that it is rightly proud of. However, it has one legacy that modern India has decided to tackle head-on but for which it needs help. That legacy is its caste system—a system that existed for more than 3000 years although no longer officially supported.

Historically there used to be four main castes: the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas, the Vaisyas, and finally the Sudras (the farmers and the peasant caste). Beneath the four main castes is a fifth group, the Scheduled Caste. They are the untouchables, the Dalits. The Dalits historically performed what were considered the most menial and degrading jobs.

In India there are approximately 250 million Dalits. This means that some  25% of the population is Dalit. Today, although caste is no longer officially supported, there is a long road to go to empower historically disenfranchised peoples such as the Dalits (and the Sudras) in terms of past historic lack of access to education.

Human Rights Education Movement of India (HREMI)

Among its many goals, the Human Rights Education Movement of India (HREMI) is a program that seeks:

To support the coordination and promotion of the education of [poor] village youth and women’s groups; To organize youth leadership camps; To facilitate the exchange of ideas, sharing of experiences and bringing people together from different political and religious groups for dialogue and discussion.

HREMI works to empower men and women, organizations and individuals working towards the realization of their human rights. Currently the organization concentrates on supporting educational initiatives for residents of seven (7) districts of Tamil Nadu covering a total of approximately of 209 villages, namely:

The area has been divided into 7 clusters. Each cluster caters to 10 to 15 villages.

Global Literacy Project—Human Rights Education Movement of India Initiative

Over the next decade GLP will be working with the Human Rights Education Movement of India (and its program at the Delta Community College) to facilitate the creation of a modern nursing library at the Delta Community College in support of their three-year certificate program and the one-year basic training program. We also hope to create a multimedia center for use by the students.

 

GLP also plans to develop small reference libraries in strategic elementary and high schools in the various clusters over the next decade to support the goals of the Human Rights Education Movement of India.

 

Finally, GLP anticipates having volunteers visit these sites over time to assist in a variety of ways via our “Global Learning Expeditions.”