Indian NGO awarded for using B'wood films to promote literacy

In recognition of its effort to promote literacy through use of Bollywood films, a Mumbai-based non-profit organisation has won the 2013 Library of Congress Literacy Awards.
Selected in the international category, carrying a cash award of USD 50,000, the Library of Congress said PlanetRead in India is an innovative programme that reinforces literacy skills, primarily through subtitles for popular musical television programming.
SLS (Same Language Subtitling) was developed in India based on solid research. It is simple to implement and easy to replicate, reaching 200 million low-literacy TV viewers in India, the Library of Congress said.
"SLS is notable as a highly motivational approach for getting low-literacy adults to read, particularly where access to books is difficult," it said.

Among the other two awardees are the Boston-based Reach Out and Read, which received the David M Rubenstein Prize along with a cash award of USD 150,000 and the American Prize of USD 50,000 went to San Francisco-based 826 National.
The Library of Congress Literacy Awards were announced in January 2013 to help support organisations working to alleviate the problems of illiteracy and aliteracy both in the United States and worldwide.
The awards seek to reward those organisations that have been doing exemplary, innovative and easily replicable work over a sustained period of time and to encourage new groups, organisations and individuals to become involved, it said.

"Literacy opens doors to life's great opportunities," said Rubenstein, a co-founder of The Carlyle Group and a major donor to the Library of Congress National Book Festival.