Creative Community

Mothers and children work together at literacy

I thought I’d have little new to write about another adult literacy class. But I was mistaken. Here was a remarkable one. In a cluster of shabby hutments, we found a Marathi-speaking Dalit Buddhist instructing traditionally Urdu speaking Muslim women to read and write Hindi.

Pushpa Lonare searched this area for candidates to join an existing literacy class when she met Rehina Beghum, a ‘forward-looking’ Muslim.

women work together in the home to improvre reading and writing skills for themselves and their children

Rehina says ‘Our community is poorly educated so I decided somebody should teach us, Then I met Pushpa, who suggested we come to their kindergarten building. But Muslim women aren’t allowed to leave their homes; so I suggested doing the classes at home, where we could look after the kids and if our husbands came home we could attend to them too.’ Pushpa cleared the proposal with the Samata Mahila Society, Rehina provided her home, gathered friends, and classes began.

: Neighbourly care:Rehina Beghum helps Kalida with reading

Pushpa has ‘no problems working with Muslim women, we live as neighbours in one locality.’ Rehina agrees: ‘We’re all human beings, and can learn from each other.’

Through this unusual literacy class, Rehina now has the confidence to go anywhere alone. ‘I can read bus numbers and signs, and no longer need to be accompanied.’ Though most Muslims are taught to read and write Urdu for prayers and reading the Koran, it is Hindi they speak at home. But they’re not taught to read or write Hindi. Muslim women have not been encouraged to pursue education and are only now realising its importance, as the younger women look for jobs.

: Kalida with daughter Shirin; 'Literacy has hugely helped my confidence"

One of these educated ‘younger women’ is Shirin, who is watching her mother, Kalida Beghum, writing on a chalk-board. Her mother felt degraded by her lack of schooling so ensured her daughter was educated; now Shirin encourages her mother to read and write. It is Shirin who has read these women newspapers or documents they need to sign. Kalida, who sews for extra cash, is delighted: ‘Literacy has made a huge difference to my life and really helped my confidence.’

Print this page | Back to top