From selling bangles to writing letters...

If one thinks Sarva Siksha Abhiyan is just another non-starter government programme, one should have a rethink as 53-year-old illiterate Hakiman Bibi showed how the universal education programme could be turned to her advantage.

Bibi, who still sells bangles to eke out for a living, picked up a pen at 45, learning the basics under the programme at Baliapur in Dhanbad district.

"She was a fast learner and used to be first among her batch that started learning in 1994 under the programme," says a Sociology teacher at the BBM College, Baliapur, Mohammad Sarfuddin.

She completed the course in just three years and herself started to teach the basics to the women in the rural areas thereafter, adds Sarfuddin, also a member of the district Saksharta Abhiyan committee.

People in the village now look for Bibi from getting lessons to filling up bank deposits or withdrawal slips.

Bibi said she wanted to be a woman of letters so that she would not be cheated by money lenders, grocers and bangle dealers.

This is not the end of the road for Bibi, for she is one among the seven women from Jharkhand and Bihar reportedly selected for a telefilm which would depict their success stories as part of an awareness campaign.