THE MINISTRY of Human Resource Development (Department of School Education and Literacy) has been awarded first prize for their Saakshar Bharat Tableau that participated in the Republic Day parade, 2012 here in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Hon’ble Defence Minister A. K Antony handed over the award to Jagmohan Singh Raju, Director General, National Literacy Mission Authority. G.G. Kamei, General Manager, National Film Development Corporation also attended the prize distribution ceremony, held at the Rashtriya Rangshala Camp in Delhi Cantonment. State Tableaus from Goa and Karnataka were awarded second and third prize respectively.

The HRD tableau was based on the National Literacy Mission Authority’s ambitious, nation-wide program called Saakshar Bharat. This is an adult literacy program targeted at all adults above 15 years of age with a special focus on women and minorities. The Ministry commissioned the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) to design and fabricate a Tableau to draw attention to this unique program and a few of its core tenets.

The striking golden tableau was designed and fabricated by NFDC, a government of India enterprise, under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The design was developed around the creative idea of “Reaping the fruits of knowledge and building a bridge to a golden future”, conceptualized by Saumya Sen, Consultant Creative Director, NFDC and Deepak Pathania, Design Intervention. It may be mentioned that NFDC was in charge of the overall Saakshar Bharat communication campaign through print and electronic media.

NFDC is an award-winning producer of feature films. It also produces TV commercials, documentaries, short films, radio programmes for government departments and ministries. The corporation is enhancing the quality of Government communication and advertising, bringing it at par with the private sector. Besides the production of films, NFDC is now expanding its creative production portfolio and venturing into new avenues of design and communication including print, online and mobile platforms. The Saakshar Bharat Tableau was a first of its kind endeavor by the National Film Development Corporation.

Tableau Design

The design concept split the space (the tractor and the trailer) into two worlds. One world (on the trailer) depicts a process of transformation through the creative idea of the tree of knowledge (a motif inspired by the classic Indian metaphor – The Tree of Life, but with a modern twist.

The other world (on the tractor) depicts the ideal – the aspirational goal. This is a golden world (gold painted) where all are literates… a world of equity, empowerment, prosperity and progressiveness.

The golden Tree of Knowledge in the centre, a beautiful metal sculpture, denotes the centrality of literacy/ education in our lives and all aspects of development.

The Bridge between the tractor and the trailer denotes the fact that education is the bridge to a brighter tomorrow.

The Golden Village denotes the peace, prosperity and progressiveness of the idea we are striving towards.

The Knowledge Tree and the tableau were brought to life by young artists, who gave a soulful performance to a Literacy Anthem titled Shiksha ka Suraj. The literacy anthem has been written by Shri Javed Akhtar, renowned lyricist and also a Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha). The music was composed by Lalit Pundit and sung by Sonu Nigam and Alka Yagnik. The performance was choreographed by Durba Ghose and the costumes designed by Joy Mitra.

The award-winning tableau was a part of the Director General, NLMA’s vision to produce qualitative communication to create awareness and generate demand for the Saakshar Bharat program.