K V Rabiya, who battled adversity to emerge as a symbol of Kerala's literacy mission, passes away at 59

K V Rabiya, whose tough frame has become the face of Kerala's adult literacy campaign, passed away at her residence in Malappuram on Sunday. She was 59.

From Vellikakkad, Malappuram district, Rabiya struggled through hardships and personal losses, right from childhood days itself, to work tireless in the cause of the differently abled and inspired a thousand women to enter the field of writing.

She was awarded the Padma Shri award for social work in 2022.

Even at the age of 12, as a school-going girl, Rabiya fell victim to polio, which would go on to paralyze her below the waist and leave her paraplegic. Not discouraged by this, she finished school and enrolled in a college. She was not able to finish the degree course, however.

Rabiya then plunged into books, reading science to literature. Wheelchair-bound now, Rabiya also began teaching tuition classes to local children for a nominal charge.

It was by chance that Rabiya was involved with Kerala's literacy movement, which started in the late 1980s. It had to be a college certificate holder for becoming a teacher for literacy. But a teacher, not able to pursue the course, requested help from Rabiya. And this was the beginning of a social worker and the beginning of her legacy.

She began teaching literacy classes in June 1990, and local housewives and elderly women were her pupils. She tried to persuade orthodox family women of the importance of education, and narrated motivational stories of global leaders and social reformers to pique their interest in taking her classes.

When her roll of students began to increase, Rabiya became a full-time literacy teacher. Subsequently, she also set up a women's library and played a key role in the progress of her region, which lacked basic facilities like roads and electricity, telephone, and water supply.

She later started a voluntary organization called Chalanam (movement), which also organized literary programs.

Her intervention was not confined to literacy only. She initiated six special schools for children and empowered and trained over 250 women through a small-scale production unit. She was just as much of a trendsetter in the movement against dowry and superstitions. In the following years, she was also a part of the e-literacy project, Akshaya, in Malappuram.

In 2000, Rabiya also developed cancer, but regained her health and went on to do social work later.

The inspirational life story of how she made her dreams come true was chronicled by Rabiya in her autobiography, Swapnangalkku Chirakukalundu (Dreams Have Wings). She wrote four other books apart from the memoir, Mouna Nombarangal (Silent Pains). There was also a film documentary on her life, titled Rabiya Moves.

She was awarded several awards, the Kannagi Devi Stree Shakti Puraskar, initiated by the Union government's Child Welfare Department, in 2000. She received the Youth Volunteer against Poverty award, initiated by the Union Youth Affairs Ministry along with the United Nations Development Programme.