Manipur News

Dr. H. R. Keshavamurthy, Director (M&C), Press Information Bureau, Kolkata.
Literacy is a human right, a road towards empowerment and a means for social and human development. Educational opportunities depend on literacy. Literacy is essential for eradicating poverty, reducing child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving gender equality and ensuring sustainable development, peace and democracy.
September 8 is observed as the International Literacy Day by UNESCO since 1966. Its aim is to highlight the importance of literacy to individuals, communities and societies. This year’s International Literacy Day was dedicated to “literacies for the 21st century” to highlight the need to realize “basic literacy skills for all” as well as equip everyone with more advanced literacy skills as part of lifelong learning.
The essence and role of education articulated in our National Policy on Education (NPE), continues to be relevant even today.
It states that education is essential for all and is fundamental to our all-round development. Education develops manpower for different levels of the economy and is also the platform on which research and development flourish to take nation towards self-reliance. In sum, education is a unique investment in the present and the future.
The Literacy rate in India has improved a lot over the last one decade. Especially after the implementation of free education in the villages the literacy rate has gone up tremendously in states like Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan . In a country like India, literacy is the main foundation for social and economic growth. When the British rule ended in India in the year 1947 the literacy rate was just 12%. Over the years, India has changed socially, economically, and globally. After the 2011 census, literacy rate India 2011 was found to be 74.04%. Though this seems like a very great accomplishment, it is still a matter of concern that still so many people in India cannot even read and write. The numbers of children who do not get education especially in the rural areas are still high. Though the government has made a law that every child under the age of 14 should get free education, the problem of illiteracy is still at large.
Now, if we consider female literacy rate in India, then it is lower than the male literacy rate as many parents do not allow their female children to go to schools. They get married off at a young age instead. Though child marriage has been lowered to very low levels, it still happens. Today, the female literacy levels according to the Literacy Rate 2011 census are 65.46% where the male literacy rate is over 80%. The literacy rate in India has always been a matter of concern but many NGO initiatives and government ads, campaigns and programs are being held to spread awareness amongst people about the importance of literacy. Also the government has made strict rules for female equality rights.
The literacy rate in India has shown significant rise in the past 10 years.
Kerala is the only state in India to have 100% literacy rate. It is followed by Goa, Tripura, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh, and Maharashtra, Sikkim.
The lowest literacy rate in India is seen in the state of Bihar. Realising the importance of literacy, Government of India (Department of School Education & Literacy) endeavours to: Provide free and compulsory education to all children at elementary level; Become a partner with the States and Union Territories to reinforce the national and integrative character of education; Build a society committed to Constitutional values with the help of quality school education and literacy; Universalize opportunities for quality secondary education and Establish a fully literate society.
In the year 2010, the country achieved a historic milestone when the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 became operative .The enforcement of the RTE Act represented a momentous step forward in our country’s struggle for universalising elementary education. Its objectives are intended to be accomplished through the following major programmes of the Central Government:
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Mid Day Meal at primary level.
Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan ,Model Schools at Secondary level.
Vocational Education, Girls’ Hostel, Inclusive Education of the Disabled.
Saakshar Bharat for Adult Education.
Mahila Samakhya for Women’s education.
Infrastructure Development of Minority Institutions; Scheme for Providing Quality Education in Madarsas for Minority Education.
A good quality basic education equips pupils with literacy skills for life and further learning; literate parents are more likely to send their children to school; literate people are better able to access continuing educational opportunities; and literate societies are better geared to face challenges.
(PIB Features.)

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/literacy-can-eradicate-poverty-curb-population-growth-achieve-equality/

Witoubou, Editor ,Newmai News Network
My grandmother would wake up early in the morning if her pregnant pig did not return home the previous evening. She would often ask one of my uncles to also get up and get ready to trace the pig.
In the 1970s, the village Langmei (Nchiang by the locals) near Tamei in Tamenglong district of Manipur enjoyed the thick forest areas.
By nature, free pigs never give birth in the house. They choose to build their nests in thick jungle, often few kilometres away from the village. Locating the nest of a pig is a painful and highly tactful task. People who are swift and strong are heaped upon the responsibility by the elderly women of the village, irrespective of the family relation. One of my uncles, short and swift fitted the bill and so he was a super-star for the elderly women in the village when came to tracking the pig’s nest. However, random search of the pig’s nest is a herculean job in the vast, thick jungle.
A nesting pig normally comes to the house normally in the morning for food. My super-star uncle would pull up his loin while the pig was having its food. The pig would rush back to its nest immediately once it completes its bowl of food. In the blink of an eye, my uncle would run after the pig steep down the hill-lock braving the thorns, creepers and leeches with his eyes glueing to the pig. After the die-hard race with the pig for about a kilometre or more, he would see the pig disappears in a small thick bush. It is actually not a bush but twigs and leaves gathered by the pig to give birth.
An expectant pig bites off twigs and tender leafy branches and gather them in a favourable spot where it feels safe, usually under a big tree or nearby a huge stone. After gathering enough of them, the pig would bull-doze itself into the middle of the heap of leaves and branches and then twirls its body. Minutes later, it becomes a cosy cocoon of leaves and branches where the pig gives birth.
Nesting pigs are ferocious and the Liangmai tribe elders often compare the mercurial persons with the nesting pigs.
My uncle would observe the nest from a safe distance for few minutes and returns home and deliver the first hand report to my grandmother who would be listening the narration with relieving face and joy. The job of my uncle would not complete there. He would be there again with my grandmother when the pig comes again for food, probably the following day. This time, the affairs would be bigger as more members of the family have to be involved.
The moment the pig comes home for food, my uncle and others would rush to the nest. The operation has to be fast and super-efficient. While the hungry mother pig is devouring its food the operation has to be completed—rushing to the nest with a basket and collect the piglets. After collecting the piglets, they have to choose a different route this time, for encountering with the fiery mother pig on the way back would be a big fatal.
The piglets would be kept in a make-shift cabin often made of logs. My joyous grandmother would be counting the piglets and also identifying their gender. This too, in short duration. Anyone around the piglets when the mother pig returns home looking for its babies, is in great danger for fiery mother pig would not compromise on anyone for ‘stealing’ its youngs from the natural nest.
My grandmother would serve boiled sweet potatoes or boiled tapioca along with red tea (without sugar and milk) to the family members as a token of appreciation and for their service.
Once this news got spread in the neighbourhood, villagers would come requesting my grandmother for the piglets.
A piglet, in those days worth at least three days of hard labour by a grown-up person in my grandmother’s paddy field. My grandfather had no affairs here for this was solely the ‘affairs of the home ministry’ of the family.
A male piglet’s value used to be higher than that of the female. So anyone going for a female piglet had to go and work in my grandparents’ paddy field for at least two days. The piglets should not be separated immediately from the mother pig even though they are sold. One had to wait till the time the piglets are able to feed by themselves.
When the piglets got matured enough to be separated from the mother pig, my grandmother would inform the people who had bought the animals. The following day, usually in the morning, the people would come with food in small containers and lure the piglets to their respective homes.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/pig-nesting-in-my-village/