'Same Language Subtitling', a brainchild of Dr Brij Kothari, a social entrepreneur and an IIM Ahmedabad professor, is a simple but powerful idea which is proven to improve literacy among adults and children. Here, the lyrics are subtitled on film songs, and words appear in sync with the actor's voice. Between 1997 and 2002, he made countless attempts to persuade Doordarshan allow him to subtitle film songs on TV. Each time he was thrown out of their offices. In 1999, a new director at the Ahmedabad Kendra agreed to experiment with subtitles on four episodes of the Gujarati programme, Chitrageet. It created such a sensation that they had to continue it for a year. Now it has become a regular on the Chitrahaar and Rangoli, telecast every morning on Doordarshan. This he funded with $250,000 global innovation prize from the World Bank.
A Nielsen-ORG study, conducted in 2002 and 2007 to assess the impact of subtitling, showed that only 25% school children could read a simple paragraph in Hindi after five years of schooling. However, this jumped to 56% if they were also exposed to subtitling for 30 minutes a week on Rangoli. Equally dramatic results were found among adults.
Hats off to these true Indians!!!!
