From: sp2@cec1.wustl.edu (Sundara Pandian)
Subject: `aRivoLi' - a mass movement for literacy - Part II
Organization: Washington University, St. Louis Mo.
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 22:31:37 GMT

 Posted For :
    M. Sundaramoorthy <sundar@indigo1.hsis.uci.edu >

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                       ARIVOLI IN TAMIL NADU
                    (thamizhagaththil aRivoLi)

                           by Pralayan

contd....

	Assume that there are one lakh (100,000) illiterate people. 10,000 
educated people are needed to teach them. Yes, one person has to teach 10
people in six months.

	Let us try to understand this way.

	Say, there are 50 houses and 150 people in a street. If 70 people are 
illiterate among them and need to be taught, it needs only 7 people. There are
already 80 people in the same street who are literate. Can't we get 7 volunteers
out of them ?(ie. those who completed 10th grade). Our job is only to identify
such motivated volunteers and train them for two months about teaching.

	There are 50 crore (500,000,000) illiterates in India and it needs 5
crore people to teach them. And there are 50 illiterates in a street and it just
needs 5 people to do the same job. Both are essentially same.

	Educated people must come forward to implement these ideas of aRivoLi
movement.

	It should be realised that illiteracy is a curse on a society. It is 
the joint responsibily of the entire society to remove that. Only with this
kind of ideals, the literacy movement could achieve its goal in Ernakulam.

	The experiences and lessons of the Ernakulam experiment helped to expand
the movement to entire Kerala and now to start a similar movement in Pondichery.

	Initially the projects are started at districts level. Both the 
voluntary organisations and government jointly implement the projects.

	"Educated people! come forward to teach!!
	Illiterates ! come forward to learn!!"

This is the slogan of the aRivoLi movement.

	An all India literacy movement called 'Bharath Gyan Vigyan Samithi' 
plays an important role in trasforming aRivoLi into a mass movement. 

	BGVS is a federation of all the people science movements and other 
voluntary organisations.

	While this federation provides guidance, the 'National Literacy Mission'
established by the Ministry of Human Resources Developement provides financial
support.

	If the movement has to be successful, it needs the support of the 
government.

	Volunatary organisations without the help of the government or the 
government without the help of the voluntary organisations can not accomplish 
this task. Both the parties do realise this fact.

	As an experiment, the 'Tamil Nadu Science Movement' started an aRivoLi
project in South Madras without government support.

	The 100% literacy movements in Kerala, Pondicheri, Midnapur district of
West Bengal and South Canara and Bijapur districts of Karnataka were organised
with the finacial support from the central government. The recently started
aRivoLi movements in Pasumpon, Pudhukkottai and Kamaraj districts also get 
financial support from the government.

	The most important aspect of the aRivoLi movement is the 'aRivoLi
Cultural Marches'. These marches play a major role in creating interest among
the illiterates to learn and attract volunteers from the educated.

	If aRivoLi is a train, the engin is these cultural marches. These 
marches help to create a suitable atmosphere for the aRivoLi movement take roots
in villages. Plays, skits, music, folk songs etc are performed during these
marches. All the events are performed in street theatre tradition in a simple
environement without fancy sets. There is no special experience required to
participate in these. Interest and motivation will suffice. Each group is
comprised of 10 people, with at least two women members. They get a ten days
training continuously followed by rehearsals. They are trained in performing
plays, group dances and choires. Many leading artists from various street
theatre groups train them before they actually start their projects. Each day
they visit three or four villages and stay overnight in the last village and
continue the march next day. This goes on for a month.

	The marches receive warm welcome wherever they go and are well 
appreciated by both illiterates and educated alike.

	To begin with there were 10 groups in May 1990 in Pondicheri. Then 8
more groups were added during August. 20 groups were formed in Tamil Nadu
during October-November. Currently there are 11 groups in Pasumpon district,
16 in Pudhukkottai and 14 in the Kamaraj districts and the numbers keep
growing. There were thousands of youths involved during past two years.

	The aRivoLi movement also created a new atmosphere for the development
of street theatre movement in Tamil Nadu. The movement is one of the few 
people movements which recognise the importance of native art forms to educate
the people in recent days.

	There are about 50,000 men and women volunteers in the aRivoLi movement
in Pasumpon, Pudhukkottai and Kamaraj districts.

	When a big 'peoples' force' like this works without any selfish motive
and expecting no any personal gains, it will surely bring 'miracles'.
  
                    ........concluded........


NOTE      :This article is a translation of the one that appeared in
           'subhamangaLaa', November 1991 written by Pralayan. He is the 
           leader of a Madras based 'chennai kalaik kuzhu', a street 
           theatre group. He and his group are actively involved in 
           'aRivoLi' movement.

DISCLAIMER:Any inconsistency with the original Tamil article is due to 
           my inablity to translate effectivly.


M. Sundaramoorthy
sundar@indigo1.hsis.uci.edu

P.S: Few more articles on street theatre in Tamil Nadu will follow.