Volunteers of National Service Scheme (NSS) and students of Mahatma Gandhi Chitrakoot Gramoday University said that the advent of smart phones have reduced the challenge of adult literacy. Popularisation of smart phones has helped increase literacy rate all over. “When we started teaching people in rural areas of Satna through our mobile phones they grasped number and alphabets very easily,” said Jitendra Mishra, a Chitrakoot University student.
Students of Chitrakoot University have a project work in BSW (Bachelor of Social Work) of 100 marks to make people literate. “I have observed several examples of illiterate people operating mobile phones around me. They take first help from their children on how to dial numbers thereby learning numbers. Later they also learn to save numbers thereby increasing their literacy levels,” said retired teacher and social worker Prakash Malviya.
Cyber media research data shows that penetration of smart phones in MP stands at 33% where literacy rate is 69.3%. Sales of smart phones show a growth of 0.8% in MP. Though there is no concrete study on correlation between literacy and smart phone, a recent study conducted by Mobilytiks, a big data-driven analytics programme at CyberMedia Research, shows that people in states with higher literacy rates, such as Kerala, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, and Gujarat, prefer smart phones over feature phones. Delhi is among the top five regions with a higher percentage of smart phones in use.
