Role of Functional Literacy in Poverty Alleviation of Rural Women in Pakistan: Some Empirical Evidences

Abstract

This study examines the impacts of the women functional literacy programs on the improvement of literacy, knowledge, reduction of poverty and capability development, particularly in the rural and poor communities of Pakistan. This study is designed to seek knowledge on how functional literacy could help in making non-literates poor rural women functionally literate, at the same time provide them with income-generating skills in order to improve their living standards and enhance their capabilities to achieve functionings they have reason to value. It may be worth mentioning that the terms ‘poverty’ in this research study, is used to mean capability deprivation, and never to imply solely income poverty. Non-formal functional literacy programs were set up in poor communities with the aim of providing literacy and livelihood skills to the poor and illiterate women. It was intended to make poor women able to read, write, compute and interact adequately with the community. The functional literacy programs were intended to help in achieving the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of universal basic education by catering those who could not achieve formal education; reducing acute poverty through livelihood and life-skill. To understand the whole phenomenon of functional literacy in terms of women poverty alleviation, case studies of Bunyad Foundation literacy Project and the Sustainable Livelihoods in Barani Areas Project (SLBAP) in Punjab were taken for analysis. The research was conducted in the six villages of three districts of Punjab, Pakistan namely Hafizabad, Sialkot and Gujarat. The study was descriptive in nature. A sample of 134 learners was selected from three districts. Data was collected by using an Interview schedule. The entire sample successfully completed their four months literacy and 4 month skill-development course. However, the in-depth study of these projects reveals that the overall required change has not been occurred despite positive policy response and allocation of resources towards government and NGOs. The results of the study established a weak relationship between participation in the functional literacy classes and improvement in social and economic lives of functional literacy learners. Ironically, the components of poverty alleviation and women development of these programs provide more disappointing results that is a matter of great concern to the policy makers and development practitioners. Findings from the research reveal that most of the functional literacy adult learners in the six villages of three districts have acquired varied degree of reading, writing, calculation and income-generation skills through the functional literacy classes. Data also shows that most of the literacy learners lost the literacy and practical skills to a large extent after completing the program. This could be attributed to a number of factors including the curriculum design, teaching methods, workload of the learners, age and the characteristics the literacy learners and the teaching-learning environment. Learners complained about short duration of the program which due to time constraint, failed to deliver the proposed inputs. The functional learners faced challenges such as poor infrastructure, non-availability and late delivery of teaching and learning materials, poor remuneration of their facilitators, poor monitoring and evaluation systems, difficulties in time management and health constraints on the part of the learners. Empirical observation in Hafizabad and Sialkot District reveals that micro-finance has been proved important element of development in both rural areas where the biggest clients of micro-finance institutions were females. The credit market is really workable for the poor in the rural areas. This indicates that adult education programs should go beyond basic literacy learning and credit facilities should be linked with as a significant component of the development. So far no serious efforts have been made on the part of researchers, development policy makers or donor agencies to explore the causes of poor performance of functional literacy projects particularly with the special focus on women empowerment. There is no one simple solution to alleviate poverty because it is dynamic process based on many interrelated factors. Educational strategies may influence the different dimensions of poverty i.e., income, health, social exclusion etc. But as it is not the panacea for lack of development policies, it alone cannot end poverty. The overall microeconomic policies and current socio-economic, political and cultural environment, which enable people to utilize their skills, influence a great deal in the success of educational interventions