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| People turning mobile literates, Is it a mobile Revolution? | | | Salman Nizami
Various Central and State government agencies pumping huge amounts of money into literacy and adult education programme might have achieved their targets faster by simply sponsoring cellular phone technology among illiterate masses.
Many illiterates people residing in J&K state have learnt to identify English alphabets by using their mobile sets and are effectively putting their knowledge of English to use in different spheres in life. Chaman Lal (45) a guard in govt. Medical College Jammu, never got a chance to go to school, But after using a mobile phone in 2005, he has learnt to identify all English alphabets within a short time. Now he identifies the ‘Missed Call’ given by his wife, as the mobile screen reflects ‘BB’. “I saved her number as Capital letters ‘B’ written twice meaning ‘Biwi’ (wife) so I understand that my wife is calling,” says Madan innocently.
The phone book that his mobile contains is quite different from the literate users, as he has chosen coded letter to identify friends, family and other people. “ I am unable to use the message facility but if I learnt alphabets in little less than two years, I will soon start forming words too”, he said.
Another such person is a cobbler who has picked up words like “Menu, Call, Reject, Received, Silent, Vibrate” in the past three years of cell phone usage.” I had been to Hindi Medium Primary School but with this mobile I learnt numerical and some of the English words, “he said.
Bablu-a daily wage earner gave impetus to his business after using a mobile set, but he plans to get a set with hindi-user menu –“I know how to receive and make calls and I am now learning to identify English words. I keep “Pocket telephone dairy, but if I get one Hindi enabled mobile, I would feed the numbers in phone book,” he said.
Claiming the trend is positive, University of Jammu’s sociologist Professor Arti Sharma says, “Fast learning comes from social laboratory.” Many have given a fillip to the zeal and commitment to learn, he says.
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