Kerala government brings out Hamari Malayalam textbook for migrant labourers

Titled Hamari Malayalam (Our Malayalam), the textbook will be launched by state education minister C Raveendranath The government initiative is expected to be a boon for around 25 lakh workers, who migrated to Kerala from states including West Bengal and Bihar Hamari Malayalam comprises 25 chapters dealing with various topics ranging from hygiene, health and technology to rights of workers and ethical values

The Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority is all set to release a textbook exclusively to teach migrant labourers Malayalam. 

The state government initiative is expected to be a boon for around 25 lakh workers, who migrated to Kerala from states including West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Tamil Nadu. 

Titled Hamari Malayalam (Our Malayalam), the textbook will be launched by state education minister C Raveendranath at Perumbavoor near Kochi, a town with largest migrant labour population in the state. 

Literacy mission director P S Sreekala said the book has been designed in such a way that migrant labourers can interact with local people freely and fluently in their daily life. The textbook would be used under 'Changathi', the Mission's exclusive programme for migrant workers, she said. 

"Our core objective is to make migrant labourers competent in reading and writing Malayalam. Many of them can already speak broken Malayalam," PTI quoted Sreekala as saying. 

Though migrant workers have been playing a key role in many sectors in the state, they are still facing exclusion in society, she said. "By teaching them Malayalam, we are aiming to end this social exclusion," she said. 

Detailing the features of the textbook, Sreekala said Hamari Malayalam comprises 25 chapters dealing with various topics ranging from hygiene, health and technology to rights of workers and ethical values. The chapters would be in the format of dialogues, set in various backdrops like bank, school, market and so on.