| She is a middle-aged
woman in a South African village, works as a farm labourer,
and she has something to tell the world: "I can now read
the Bible without depending on my granddaughter to read it
to me." After just 10 weeks of training, this lady has
conquered ignorance; she can now read and write. "It
is stories like this which inspire us to do more," says
Syamal Gupta, a director with Tata Sons and chairman of Tata
International, who oversees the Tata Group's adult literacy
initiative — implemented in South Africa by the WDB trust
— that has so far trained 65 people to read.
In South Africa, headquarters of Tata Africa, there are
currently two community development programmes that highlight
the Group's commitment to support economic and social development.
The first, the adult literacy project, involves a partnership
between Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and the WDB Trust,
an organisation that works in the areas of micro finance,
entrepreneur training and education for impoverished rural
women.
The second is a skills-training programme in which people
from rural South Africa are trained in jewellery making
at the Titan plant in Bangalore, and in decorating ceramic
ware at Tata Ceramics in Kochi. The programmes have been
conducted in association with Kgabane, an organisation that
works to alleviate poverty and create self-employment opportunities
for rural women.
Thanks to TCS's pioneering computer-based functional literacy
programme (CBFL), more than 46,000 people have learnt to
read and write in India. Making its debut in the Beeramguda
village in Andhra Pradesh in 2000, the programme has spread
to other parts of India and has now winged its way across
the Indian Ocean to the shores of Africa.
The seed for this remarkable effort was laid in 2002, when
the WDB Trust's chairperson, Zanele Mbeki, the wife of South
African President Thabo Mbeki, visited India. She was impressed
with the CBFL programme and was interested in replicating
it in her country.
Prof P. N. Murthy and Major General (retired) B. G. Shively
from TCS visited South Africa to see which of the country's
indigenous languages would be the most suitable for the
methodology used. North Sotho (Sipedi) was the first language
selected, as the Trust had linguistic expertise in it. The
sounds were mapped and a phonetic script developed with
the help of local experts. What made the project easier
was that, phonetically, Indian and South African languages
are quite similar. While TCS helped in the linguistics and
software development, the facilitators were locals.
The first programme was conducted in early 2004 with a
group of 62 women. It took exactly 10 weeks for the women
to become literate (40 women successfully completed the
course). It is literacy at a very elementary level, but
it's made a big difference to the lives of these women.
"It was moving to see the women so excited at finally
being able to read," says the WDB Trust's executive
director, Prof B. Moffat. "The main benefit of this
programme has been the self-confidence the women have gained
and the increase in their self-esteem. In South Africa,
literacy is highly valued and people who cannot read are
looked down upon. In fact, some people just pretend to be
able to read. It erodes their self-confidence, because they
are always worried that someone is going to find out."
The WDB Trust has now independently developed the programme
in a second language, Xhonga, and it will be implemented
as soon as an assessment is done by TCS. South Africa has
11 official languages of which eight are indigenous. It's
too costly to implement the programme in all the languages
simultaneously, so the Trust is developing them one at a
time. The next on the list is Zulu, the most widely spoken
indigenous language in South Africa.
A major challenge for the Trust is getting the women to
commute to its literacy centres. Says Toto Nduba-Dikgole,
who is closely involved in the project: "Rural areas
in South Africa are sparsely populated and, since transportation
is scarce, the women have to walk long distances. We need
to conduct training sessions in areas which are within a
5-km radius of the villages." The WDB Trust is fortunate
that computers are not in short supply (two women share
a computer). This has given a boost to the programme, as
the women also become computer literate.
Future plans include teaching English, the lingua franca
of business in South Africa. The Trust currently has limited
resources, but it has plans to network with other non-government
organisations who teach English. "The CBFL programme
has made a huge difference to the lives of women in some
rural areas and we are happy with the relationship we have
developed with the Tatas," says Ms Moffat. "Their
commitment is exceptional."
Interweaving livelihoods
Andrew loves Indian culture, specially the festivities of
an Indian wedding. They are very colourful, he admits shyly,
but he found the food too spicy. Andrew was in India last
year as part of a team that spent six months training in
jewellery making at Titan Industries in Hosur.
The programme was initiated by Tata Africa with Kgabane,
an organisation set up by the Ministry for Minerals and
Energy, in partnership with Harmony Gold and Mintek (the
South African R&D centre for minerals technology).
Their association with the Tatas began when Tata Africa
director Raman Dhawan was invited to be a member of the
board. "We welcomed the programme as we saw a lot of
opportunity to train some of our already skilled people,"
says Busisiwe Ntuli, Kgabane's chief operating officer.
"It's been exciting working with the Tatas. They always
go the extra mile and make things happen."
Kgabane works mainly with people who are unemployed or don't
have guaranteed incomes. "We try to introduce the women
to some kind of activity so that they can earn a basic monthly
income," says Ntuli. Nearly 300 women have been trained
at their workshop. They receive a stipend during the training
period and then earn through the sale of products, which
are sold through outlets in Johannesburg, Cape Town and
other large cities. The women also sell products from home
to the community around them.
The seven people who were sent for training to Titan already
had some basic knowledge. "We realised that they were
not going to learn the basics in India. Their training would
be to enhance their skills so as to generate greater income
for themselves," says Ntuli. They worked on stone settings,
polishing and bench work.
Andrew, who trained in stone setting, has already begun
working on jewellery pieces since his return and is also
training new groups of people. Christine, who did bench
work, is from a division of Mintek which deals with mining,
ceramics and glass beads. They also train women in jewellery
manufacture for self-employment. Christine's designs are
inspired by African art and, apart from seashells and ostrich
shell, she also uses glass and ceramics beads made from
recycled glass bottles, a process that has been developed
by Mintek.
"I have learned a lot from my visit to Titan, especially
about working with gold jewellery," says Christine.
"Their designs were very different and now I can add
to my designs from what I have learned in India. I hope
to start my own business in a few years." Christine
has trained around 50 housewives and young girls in glass-bead
jewellery and also helps them market the products.
Ntombenhle, from Nkalipho, an organisation in Durban, spent
nearly two months training at the Tata Ceramics factory
in Kochi. "We enjoyed our training because it was something
new for us," she says. "We did decoration work
on tableware; the designs were very different because the
orders were mostly from European countries."
Ntuli would like to strengthen Kgabane's relationship with
the Tatas. "It's been good to work with the Tatas;
their commitment and involvement in the projects we have
worked on together are outstanding," she says. For
the Group, spreading its community development activities
to the African continent is but a corollary of its business
philosophy.
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