Same Language Subtitling - India

The synchronisation of audio and text is created through colour changes in the subtitles, identifying every word as it is being sung. In this way, SLS works to strengthen grapheme-phoneme associations, which are weak in early literate people. More specifically, the project has added SLS to popular film song programmes on TV in Hindi, Gujarat, Marathi, and more recently, Telugu.

One past SLS project involved producing a 30-minute Hindi film song programme featuring 5 songs. Called Chitrahaar, this show aired from 7:30pm to 8:00pm on national television (DDI). An in-house subtitling and editing studio provided the subtitling and anchoring. The first 2 episodes of the series included 2 questions for the programme audience. After the episodes aired, a poster of song lyrics was sent to all viewers who submitted correct responses to these questions. Prizes were then awarded from a lottery of those who responded correctly. A literacy skill survey was sent to those who participated in this contest. The programme was marketed through posters sent to District Literacy Missions and Education Offices; an ad for the programme was aired on Chitrahar. There was also an effort to advocate for the programme with media and education policy-makers, as well as with those in the film, music, and television industries.

Education.

This project was made possible by a grant by Development Marketplace 2002 (World Bank's global innovation competition). Research conducted in 3 separate experiments in the classroom and at state (in Gujarat on DDK Ahmedabad) and national levels (in Rajasthan, U.P., M.P., Bihar, Gujarat) found that reading ability improves as a result of viewing film- and folk-song-based content with the addition of SLS. The national study was conducted independently by Nielsen's ORG-Centre for Social Research. The study also found that around 90% of viewers, early-literate and literate, actually prefer song programming with SLS than without (because they can sing along and know the song lyrics). SLS also makes song programmes accessible to the hearing-challenged and deaf.

The SLS project has received several international recognitions. For example, SLS was awarded the Best Social Innovation for the year 2000 in the Education category by The Institute for Social Inventions, London (UK). It was a winner at Development Marketplace 2002 and honoured with a Tech Laureate from the Tech Museum of Innovations, San Jose, CA (USA). Subsequently, the SLS project has developed under a Reuters Foundation Digital Vision Fellowship and a Microsoft Developing Country Fellowship at Stanford University, and a grant from Hewlett-Packard.