Illiteracy

Illiteracy

Virginija Morgan

For many of us who have been raised through the formal education system – schools, colleges and
universities, - illiteracy means the inability of a person to read and write. But there’s a much more
profound, more debilitating type of illiteracy we oftentimes forget in this age of mobile phones and
internet: the functional illiteracy.

Only a couple of days ago, I had an opportunity to glean the depth of such illiteracy when testing an
informational material being designed for illiterate female livestock farmers. A young woman I was
testing the material with not only was illiterate in the conventional sense of the word (not able to read or write), but also had no ability to tell time, to operate a mobile phone, to use cash or to recognize
even the simplest (what we, more educated ones, think as universal) graphic signs meaning “stop” or
“don’t”.

And yet, this is the reality of the thousands of men and women across Pakistan. With the official literacy rates hovering below 60% nationwide, according to the 2013-2014 Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement, and female literacy rate at 47%, a significant portion of the country’s population lives in the absolute darkness of mind.

Unfortunately, most of the surveys do not even measure the level of the functional illiteracy, when a
human being – more often than not, a woman, - is reduced to little more than an animal that could not function without support of others.  According to the same survey, only 15% of rural women in

Balochistan and 22% of rural women in Sindh are literate, with rural women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab tagging along at 31% and 45%, respectively, and men as well as urban women showing slightly higher rates. Likely, some of the illiterate group have at least some degree of functional literacy. This still leaves a significant share of rural and urban women being unable to carry out even the simplest tasks.

These are also the women who, when sick, delivering babies or taking care of their own sick children, cannot communicate effectively with the medical professionals. They are unable to pay bills, make
purchases of produce or other household goods, make any informed decisions for themselves or their
family members, or perform any but the simplest tasks.

This phenomenon has a staggering impact on the society at every level. It stunts the ability of the family unit to have an equitable division of responsibilities, since the man becomes de facto the only caregiver and interlocutor with the outside world, tasked not only with the responsibility to earn the living for the family, but also to make all the decisions affecting the family and perform all tasks outside the house on behalf of the entire family. Functional illiteracy of a woman also deprives the society and the economy of the contributions she could otherwise make by participating more equitably in the life of her community.

While we frequently focus on the rights the society must afford to these women, we must not forget
how crippling such situation is to the entire community, where a significant portion of the population is not able to effectively take part in the life of their family and society, when they have to rely on others to provide for them and decide for them in all kinds of matters. It’s a debilitating phenomenon that seeps the energy and resources while contributing little in return.