State Resource Centre Assam (SRC) is the institution established by MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development) through Centre Sector Scheme, ‘Scheme of Support to Voluntary Agencies for Adult Education & Skill Development’ under the aegis of leading VOs (Voluntary Organizations) with proven record of success in the social sector to provide technical & academic support to Adult Education Programme in the concerned state. Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India set up State Resource Centre Assam (SRCA) in the year 1995. The State Resource Centres (SRCs) have carved out a distinct role for themselves among the professional organizations of adult education. The vision of SRC Assam is to evolve into a centre of Excellence for development programmes through Material Development, Capacity Building and Research in order to achieve the goals of National Literacy Mission Authority. SRC Assam has its own Governing Body, which is the decision making Body in all affairs. SRC Assam is a registered body under Society Act. 1860 and functions under grant in aid from National Literacy Mission Authority, Govt. of India. Since inception, SRC Assam has been engaged in number of activities not only literacy program but also orientation, awareness, motivation, women empowerment, Panchayats, development of IEC materials in different language groups, population development education, gender equality, convergence etc. SRC Assam associates itself closely with the State Literacy Mission Authority, Secondary Education Department, Deptt. of Adult Education of the state, Zilla Parishad, SIRD, State Legal Service Authority, Disaster Management Authority, Election Deptt., Department of Justice, Govt of India and other agencies like voluntary organizations and educational institutions implementing the program in the state. To carry out these activities, the SRC has a team of highly qualified and experienced academic staff, besides administrative and support staff with adequate office equipments including internet LAN connection. In addition, SRC utilizes the services of experienced persons in the field of Adult Education and Vocational training courses out of the SRC staff as and when required so.

Activities of SRC Assam

  As per 2011census data 27% of total population are non-literate in this country, which covers more than 30 crores of our population. The literacy rate of women is only 65% that means 35% of women are still non-literate. There is a low rate of literacy among SC, ST, Minority Muslims, Tea Garden Community, Dalits and other marginalized populations. The Education for all Global Monitoring Report 2013-2014 (GMR) released worldwide by UNESCO acknowledges that India has by far the largest population of non-literate adults at 287 million, amounting to 37 % of the global total. The report vividly underlines the fact that people in the most marginalized groups have not received opportunities to read and write till today. There is a disparity of literacy between elite group of society and poorest people of the society. On the other hand, there are also gender disparity at 17% in literacy between male and female. The efforts to make people literate should be a continuous process to understand about their standard of living and to understand the causes of deprivation and other means of backwardness. If people become total literate, the improvement of quality of life can be expected. The literacy programme undertaken by National Literacy Mission Authority, Govt. of India with other partner organizations like SLMA and SRCs is always taking major role to address those issues through different convergence or PPP mode. Based on our learning experience in the field of Adult Education, it was observed that the level of awareness and Knowledge on Legal Aspects especially the people of North East is found absent. Hence, it has been considered to undertake Legal Literacy Programme as supplementary activity for Adult Educators along with Adult Literacy Programme through convergence mode. The Legal literacy which speaks the provisions and accesses for the legal rights of the deprived people is also one of the major components of literacy programme. Literacy is an indispensible component for effective social and economic participation, attributing to human development and poverty reduction. On the other hand Legal Literacy means making people aware of their rights and entitlements. As underlines in our constitution under article – Law is a powerful tool. A person may be literate but sometimes literate person also become helpless and confused when there is violation or infringement of a right to enforceable in law. Legal literacy is therefore seems to be a tool to bringing of qualitative reforms of the people at grass root level. It has been witnessed that better awareness of laws helps people works more effectively in diverse spheres. The failure of execution of laws has been attributed to the beneficiaries due to lack of awareness on legal laws. Under above circumstances, it is to create a robust “Rule of Law Culture” by educating the society about their Legal Rights under the purview of Domestic and International Law. With a view to the above circumstances, the Adult Literacy programme focuses literacy for all considering as a force multiplier for all actions of social development.

   The Programme aims to contribute to the empowerment of learners so that they can make informed choices, take control of issues that affect them and eventually enhance the quality of their lives. The present thinking on adult education focuses on harnessing the power and potential of adult learning and education for a viable future. The framework emphasizes the need to develop literacy that is relevant and adapted to learners’ needs and leads to functional and sustainable development focusing on women and highly disadvantaged populations including indigenous people with an overall focus on rural populations. The framework fosters a culture of quality in adult learning and enrichment of learning environments and the empowerment of individuals and communities.

   The National Literacy Mission Authority (NLMA), Government of India has decided to make Adult Literacy Programme more attractive, useful and relevant to the adult learners and other literacy functionaries. Under this new initiative, Literacy programme has been implemented on a convergence mode by involving various stake holders from other Government departments including Department of Justice. The National Literacy Mission Authority has signed a Memorandum of Understanding regarding Legal Literacy initiatives on 2nd June, 2015 with the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law & Justice, Government of India. Under said MoU, SRC Assam has been involved as partner organization to undertake legal literacy activities in North East. So far SRC Assam has successfully implemented four projects on Legal literacy through signing a separate MoA.

   NITI Aayog has identified 117 districts of India as low performing districts in the core indicators of Health & Nutrition, Infrastructure, Agriculture and Financial Literacy. To understand the factual cause of reasons, NITI Aayog has assigned TATA Trust as a third party validating Agency to undertake baseline survey randomly in selected 48 villages of each district. To undertake said survey activity, the Tata Trust has selected Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti (BGVS). BGVS is the parent organization of SRC Assam. The Baseline survey activities are being undertaken by SRC Assam in the district of Hailakandi and Udalguri of Assam, West Sikkim district of Sikkim, Ri-bhoi of Meghalaya and Namsai of Arunachal Pradesh since April 2018.