The Jan Sikshan Sansthan (JSS), Malappuram, has won the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy. The award has been conferred on the JSS in recognition of its literacy-linked skill development activities among the underprivileged in rural areas.

The JSS bagged the prestigious international award for its initiatives in applying new technology in literacy. Innovations such as Braille applications and the talking pen used by the JSS impressed Unesco.

• JSS chairman P.V. Abdul Wahab, MP, will receive the award from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Paris on September 8. The award sponsored by China consists of $20,000, diploma, and a silver medal. A JSS team will visit China on a study tour.

• The JSS has reached out to the weaker sections, including widows and Adivasis, with its literacy and skill-development programmes. More than 53,000 people from different sections have been covered since the project began in 2006.

• With JSS support, more than 40,000 people improved their income through such means as stitching, mobile repairing, embroidery, choke-making and bag making.

• Many of them now make an income between Rs.5,000 and Rs.50,000 a month,” said V. Ummer Koya, project director. The talking pen introduced by the JSS to educate tribal women had won wide appreciation. The JSS had last year won the Saakshar Bharat Award.