Kulathupuzha may be a sleepy village located on the outskirts of Kollam, but the grama panchayat is now the first completely Constitution-literate local body in the State.
The feat was achieved as part of ‘The Citizen’, a constitution-literacy campaign jointly organised by Kollam district panchayat, District Planning Committee, and Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA). Governor Arif Mohammed Khan will make the declaration at a function to be held at Kulathupuzha on August 28.
As part of the campaign, all residents above the age of 10 were educated on the Constitution, its history, fundamental rights, and legal redressal measures. More than 29,000 persons from 9,388 families in the panchayat were made Constitution-literate through systematic efforts. The local body has also installed the Preamble of the Constitution in all households, government, quasi-government, and private institutions, and schools.
The campaign kicked off with a proclamation rally in April and later various forums were constituted by the panchayat. “In the initial phase, all 20 wards in the panchayat were divided into clusters. KILA had sent trainers to educate the families and meeting were convened across wards,” says panchayat president P. Anilkumar. The major hurdle they faced was working persons who were not available during the day. “We identified some segments like drivers, vendors and daily wage workers who couldn’t attend the training. We got in touch with them and started conducting the sessions at their workplace,” he adds. The panchayat is also conducting various Constitution-based competition for school children prior to the day of declaration. The declaration ceremony will be attended by Ministers K.N. Balagopal, J. Chinchurani, N.K. Premachandran, MP, and P.S. Supal, MLA.
The campaign launched in early 2022 aims to educate over 7 lakh families in the district on the basic principles of Constitution and declare Kollam a completely Constitution-literate district. Nearly 3,000 persons from various LSGs were imparted training to educate the public and they are in charge of spreading awareness and conducting classes for units comprising 10 to 20 families. District-to-ward level forums were also constituted for coordinating the campaign with the help of socio-cultural and voluntary organisations.
