‘Entha’ and ‘vendathu’ do not come easily to Mamala Sethi, but then she has been in the city for only a month. Debaki Kanhar who shares her bench has been here a month longer — her well-formed Malayalam letters never giving it away that she hails from Odisha.
On a recent Sunday evening, Mamala and Debaki attended a Malayalam literacy class for guest workers at a working women’s hostel at the Kinfra Apparel Park, Kazhakuttam.
From May 1
Organised by the Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority as part of the Changathi project to teach Malayalam to guest workers, the classes that began at the hostel on May 1 have met with enthusiastic response.
Every day, some 30 women working in various establishments at the Kinfra Apparel Park walk in after work for an hour of lessons in two batches from 6 p.m. The classes are led by Kavitha P., welfare officer at Texport Industries Pvt Ltd., one of the firms the women are employed with. Those who miss the weekday classes can turn up for the Sunday classes from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Pranitha Karada from Odisha has been working with Texport for four years. Though she understood a bit of Malayalam, conversing was not easy. When she heard of the classes, she grabbed the opportunity. Sharmila was hesitant initially, but now enjoys learning Malayalam.
It takes 15-20 days for the women to master the letters. From then on, the textbook ‘Hamari Malayalam’ comes into play. It teaches them what to ask for at the market or the bank. Soon, they will be introduced to concepts such as their rights, hygiene, and education. For now, the women read aloud to get the pronunciation right. There is homework too. Sharmila, who has studied up to class 10, is enthusiastic about the three or four pages of writing that she gets every day.
Anitha Gouda who works with Bombay Rayon Fashion Ltd. hopes to read a Malayalam newspaper soon. “Earlier, the letters seemed strange. Though we still make mistakes, we now enjoy the classes.”
Slow and steady
The women acknowledge Kavitha’s role in the process. “She is patient with us, and does not mind repeating repeating things,” they say. The results have not gone unnoticed. “We could read English and Hindi at the market, but now we can make out what is written in Malayalam,” says Sharmila.
Kinfra Apparel Park MD Jeeva Anandan says the women are making good progress. Male guest workers, however, are yet to warm to the idea. Mr. Anandan hopes that they will come around,0 and emulate their women counterparts.