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Adult Literacy Program Brings Hope to Lucknow’s Underprivileged Women
Lucknow 5 September 2025 – ‘Educate Girls’, which is known for facilitating access to quality education to girls, has become India’s first not for profit organization to win the Ramon Magasaysay Award for 2025. While India is busy celebrating the award, Lucknow has discreetly began educating its most underprivileged Women in the age bracket of 16-60 years of Nai Basti area. The herculean task of educating women, has come with the additional challenge for teachers in absence of classrooms, blackboard or computers. The classes are held in common spaces or in homes or teachers or learners, dealing with the intense temperatures, rain and humidity. Often men passing by comment or taunt women, “What will you gain from learning as you have become old?”
But a determined team of young women – Afreen, Anjum, Nisha, Ishrat, Mariyam, Heena and Zeba – are diligently running the classes. They have been persuading women for more than 10 weeks to attend the pop-up classes held in and around Nai Basti. Afreen and Heena are student themselves continuing their high school studies along with the literacy classes, Anjum, Nisha, Ishrat and Maryam are also teaching the underprivileged children of the basti, who belongs to migrant or extremely resource constrained families. Zeba has been actively supporting the community in getting their Aadhar cards, pensions allotted and guiding people to avail government schemes. Equipped with ALfA books and Maths kit pioneered by DEVI Sansthan, women sit on simple mat to co-learn alphabets and vowels through picture and letter cards, where as simple mathematics is taught through ice-cream and match sticks. The idea is to avoid traditional rote learning model, which takes years and bores women.
For the first time for many women, they have received opportunity to learn where they were center of attention. They also found safe space to connect with women of similar age developing a feeling of belonging. As women told in one of the interactions, “Hume class me acha lagta hai, hum has-bol lete hai, ghar ki tension bhul jate hai”. Lucknow’s literacy rate has been little over 79% as recorded by Census 2011, which is expected to be much lower in urban slums, underprivileged and minority communities as well as women. This is where DEVI Sansthan, University of Canterbury New Zealand and KGMU’s collaboration towards women’s literacy is showing positive change.
Comparing the baseline and midline assessment of the literacy programme, 3 out of 4 women enrolled in the classes have shown improvement in their basic literacy scores. Women are feeling confident and are able to read simple text, calculate the amount spent on groceries, and are able to ask questions and communicate publicly. Women are also learning about financial literacy, where women learnt the importance of money, banking and also filling the bank forms, thus touching their day to day lives.
Women’s literacy has a cross-generational impact, empowering the mothers to engage more in their children’s education. One 39 year old learner told the school teacher at a recent PTM, “Mai angootha nahi lagaungi, muje apna naam likhana aata hai. And she wrote in a beautiful handwriting –Qutubun Nisha.”
“Literacy is the gift of a lifetime”, said Dr Sunita Gandhi, President of DEVI Sansthan. “It empowers and uplifts, and can transform a person’s outlook on life. From better employment opportunities to greater self-confidence and resilience, learning to read is a key that unlocks many doors.” Qutubun Nisha and the other newly literate women of Nai Basti couldn’t agree more.
The classes have also led to opportunities for learners, to express themselves and pursue hobbies of their choice. Some women revealed that they like painting, others liked to draw mehendi, some were interested in Kashida work, others experimented with new recipes.
