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For Dr. Brij Kothari, “eureka!” The moment came while watching a Spanish film in 1996. The 58-year-old academic social entrepreneur wondered how useful it would be to read in India if Bollywood films were also subtitled in Hindi.
This is how BIRD, or the Billion Readers Initiative, was conceived.
Soon after this incident, Dr. Kothari joined the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), and delved into research on the idea of same-language translation, a term he coined himself. Shows that SLS translates audiovisual content in the same language as the audio. What you hear is what you read.
“The idea behind BIRD is that SLS for content on TV and mainstream streaming platforms will enhance reading literacy for the 1 billion Indians who have access to television,” explains Dr. Kothari, who is currently an assistant professor at IIMA.
BIRD, a collaboration between IIMA and Dr. Kothari’s non-profit PlanetRead, was recently awarded a prestigious “Regime Change” grant from the global philanthropic collaborative Co-Impact. It was among 34 initiatives across Africa, Asia and South America awarded to help make systems more just and inclusive.
Upon receiving the grant, former Director of IIMA, Professor Errol D’Souza said, “Our institute has nurtured SLS innovation since its inception and over the next five years, we aim to scale it up nationally in partnership with government, private, civil society and other institutions.”
the background
Despite India’s nearly 80 percent literacy rate, studies have found that more than half of the “literate” cannot read simple texts, let alone read newspapers. ASER (Annual State of Education Report) finds, year after year, that half of rural children in fifth grade cannot read a second-grade standard text.
This is a serious problem and there are several causes. When a child attends school, the home language may differ from the school language. Dr. Kothari explains that the quality of teaching in the schools leaves a lot to be desired.
He continues, “The problem of intermittent schooling is another. Of the 200 days of schooling, children in rural areas can only attend 100 to 125 days. Many children leave school in the fifth grade, and even more so in the eighth grade. After that, There is no opportunity for continuous reading practice for them, as they have little exposure to printed material. Poor readers read less, which exacerbates the problem.”
The premise behind the BIRD initiative is that the average Indian will watch about four hours of television per day, for the next 70 years. If the TV content contains SLS, then when the TV is automatically turned on, the playback is played. It is estimated that India has 600 million poor readers, as well as 250 million non-readers. The primary target of the BIRD initiative is vulnerable readers.
Stunning effect
BIRD is building a strong alliance of partners across central and state governments, speech-to-text experts at leading institutes of technology such as IIT-Madras and MIT Open Learning, and leading civil society organizations. Once state governments are on board, the BIRD team plans to speak directly to major television networks, streaming platforms, and content producers.
The initiative is also set to develop AI-driven technology to automatically translate content in more than 12 Indian languages, with an accuracy of at least 85%. As a result, BIRD will soon apply SLS to 1,000 hours of entertainment content per language in 12 languages.
BIRD also claims to be the first to propose the use of SLS in mainstream television entertainment for mass reading literacy. Other countries have taken advantage of SLS, or “captioning” as they call it, to access media among the deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) and to learn language.
Dr. Kothari notes, “There have been many studies on SLS and language learning, but few of them relate to their relevance to reading literacy. Pilot studies in the US and New Zealand cite our work on reading and writing. This innovation is India’s baby!”
The number of targeted beneficiaries makes the BIRD initiative one of the largest reading literacy interventions in the world. Notables including Bill Clinton consider the SLS “a small thing that has an amazing impact on people’s lives.”
(embed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juZOlmf9APk (/embed)
Two factors make SLS a viable solution for improving reading skills. First, the content with SLS will be the viewer’s choice. Secondly, watching and reading activity will not require more time and effort because it happens automatically while watching TV.
We combined three elements – TV content, subtitling and people’s passion for the content. “Passion plus SLS is the answer,” says Dr. Kothari.
In India, SLS is available in English-language television entertainment but not systematically in any Indian language. BIRD aims to change that for three major national goals – reading, writing, learning Hindi and accessing media among DHH. There is compelling evidence to support SLS for all three goals.
Proof of effectiveness
Several studies of eye tracking and its effect found that the presence of SLS in popular entertainment content leads to the practice of spontaneous reading. In fact, the results of the study revealed that 90 percent of weak readers who were exposed to SLS would attempt reading with SLS, intermittently and sufficiently to improve their reading skills.
Dr. Kothari notes, “We conducted a study of children in grades 1 to 5 in government schools in Rajasthan. We showed them videos with subtitles and without subtitles.”
We noticed that previously, eye movements were divided between image and translation. Consistent on-screen associations between audio and text activate and strengthen brain pathways that aided in the acquisition of reading skills. Basically, anyone trying to learn to read seeks to read text – whether on billboards, store signs, or comics. It’s like a game. Dr. Kothari explains that this game is activated in the case of SLS.
A five-year study was also conducted on the musical TV series Rangoli, which airs on Doordarshan every Sunday. It has been found that even one hour of exposure to television content using SLS every Sunday improves reading skills. The effect was strongest for children studying in grades 1-3, who were automatically able to match the song and the text.
Big victory
It was not easy to obtain a framework for the SLS policy, despite strong evidence of its success. It took 15 years from conceptualizing simple innovation to framing policy.
In September 2019, SLS became part of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) Accessibility Standards under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016. Half of the entertainment content on television, in every language, state and channel, is required to carry SLS by 2025. To start, all entertainment is required The main TV channels, which number about 900, label at least one program per week.
“IIMA has been involved in the initiative since the beginning when the research was being conducted. Policymakers do not accept social innovations easily. Because of its reputation, IIMA has made it easier to engage with policy makers,” says Dr. Kothari.
While broadcasting is a central topic, implementation in different languages has to be done by the state governments by talking to the TV channels. The challenge now is the quality of implementation at scale. It is encouraging to see that a number of TV channels – including Star Plus, Star Utsav, Zee TV, Zee Anmol, Sony SET, Sony SAB, Colors TV, Surya TV and many other regional channels – have started implementing the accessibility standards of MIB. Add.
Focus on girls and women
BIRD places great emphasis on influencing the reading skills of girls and women, particularly from rural and vulnerable communities. More than 60 percent of vulnerable readers and non-readers in India are female. The priority is to add SLS to the entertainment content they love to watch. Team BIRD believes that the female demographic that reads fluently will unlock unimaginable potential for dignity, skill, and empowerment.
It is important that the intervention aimed at improving literacy among women is one that does not disrupt their daily lives. SLS will provide easy and affordable reading practice for women in a context where gender norms are a barrier.
“Girls get fewer years of education, exposure to print, and reading practice. Many girls leave school early as there is no secondary school in their village. Even during their school years, they are drawn to housework. SLS gives them opportunities to read at home,” explains Dr. Kothari. while watching TV.
With the Co-Impact grant, BIRD’s ambitious mission is now to expand SLS on TV and streaming platforms in all Indian languages.
Our goal is for a billion people to read every day for a few hours, for a lifetime. I am not casually saying this. It seems like an impossible task, but we are approaching it in a new way. We look at content that interests and engages people and provide SLS for that content. For example, 75 percent of television viewing is for entertainment content – movies, series and programs based on songs. In the case of children, it is a cartoon. For them, we integrate reading into watching cartoons through SLS, says Dr. Kothari.
What do the beneficiaries say?
A small survey was conducted to assess how much viewers liked the SLS in the early years of the project. About 2,000 postcards were received from viewers (80 percent rural) as Chitrageet’s reactions were analysed. It was found that 701 respondents liked the initiative. While 131 felt it improved reading ability, 52 thought it had a positive effect on writing ability and 20 on articulation as well.
Jayanti Davda of Amreli writes that watching Chitrageet with SLS taught many people in his neighborhood to read and write. Now, they can even sign documents and no thumb prints are required, as the postcard wrote.
The BIRD team has conducted a survey in Bihar and is talking to schools to find a good balance between the content the school system wants to deliver and what the kids want to watch. Apart from cartoons, there are good children’s films produced by the Children’s Film Society of India and NFDC that children might be interested in, Dr. Kothari believes.
What is the biggest challenge facing the BIRD initiative today? “We have estimated that it would require funds of about Rs 163 crore for five years to scale up the initiative nationwide. The Co-Impact grant would be a huge help. We are ready to match government grants with that money. The challenge is to get governments to implement the initiative in partnership with us. and with other organisations.
Dr. Kothari wrote in an article about a quote attributed to Leonardo da Vinci – “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” He says the BIRD initiative at IIM-A takes inspiration from this very thought.
Edited by Divya Sethu; Images: BIRD, Dr. Brij Kothari
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