Guwahati, April 6: The all-India conference of the northeastern region of Ekal Vidyalaya Abhiyan began at the Pragjyoti-ITA Centre here today.

Assam Governor Ajai Singh inaugurated the conference by lighting the lamp in the presence of Asam Sahitya Sabha president Kanak Sen Deka, among other dignitaries.

The national president of Friends of Tribals Society, R.L. Kabra, and the mentor of the Ekal movement, Shyamji Gupt, attended the function.

The Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation is a charitable trust that initiates, supports and runs one-teacher schools (popularly known as Ekal Vidyalayas) all over the country.

Ajai Singh lauded the efforts made by the Ekal Vidyalayas to eradicate illiteracy from rural and tribal areas of the country.

“With the participation of numerous non-profit trusts and organisations, this programme has now become the greatest non-governmental education movement in the country,” Subhash Agarwala, president of the Assam chapter of the Society, said.

The Society is the field organisation through which Ekal works in the Northeast.

More than 400 delegates from all over the Northeast took part in the conference, which will conclude tomorrow.

Agarwala said in the Northeast, the Society is conducting over 2,100 Ekal Vidyalayas and has been able to establish a very strong network of dedicated full-time workers.

The one-teacher schools are spreading literacy among the most under-privileged communities.

“During the conference, volunteers from the rural areas meet the urban volunteers and hold discussions for better co-ordination.

The main theme of this year’s conference is Swawalamban — self-reliance at the village level,” Agarwala said.

He hoped that the conference would help more and more like-minded people to involve themselves in this noble cause so that the mission of establishing over one lakh Ekal Vidyalayas in the country by 2011 can be accomplished.