India has the largest number of illiterate adults in the world, at about 278 million which accounts for 37 per cent of the global total. AS per Census 2011 the literacy rate if India 74.04 percent with huge gap in male and female literate rates. Literacy rate in Uttar Pradesh is further down at 67.68 percent with nearly 20 percent point difference between male and female literacy rate.

In 2006, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj named the district of Hardoi as one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of 640). It is one of the 34 districts in Uttar Pradesh currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF).

It is said that “… Learning is “life-long”, that learning extends from cradle to grave and it is life-wide and occurs in different settings, not only formal, but also non-formal and informal” (Rubenson 2011).

Several initiatives to tackle adult literacy have been taken by organisations such as SEWA Academy, Aga Khan Foundation, Nirantar Trust, Pratham Foundation and literacy drives by the state, as well as efforts under the Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS) and others. However, despite all these efforts, the situation of adult literacy still presents a grim picture in Uttar Pradesh and presents the need for innovative approaches to tackle the issue.

Project Samuday is a rural development initiative of HCL Foundation. HCL Foundation which is the CSR division of HCL group of companies initiated the program in 2015 in Kachauna block of District Hardoi of Uttar Pradesh. The objective of the program is to implement developmental activities with a holistic scope including thematic areas as wide as education, livelihoods, agriculture, healthcare, water and sanitation and infrastructure.

One of the objectives of HCL Foundation is eradication of illiteracy. To achieve this, HCLF foundation is implementing adult literacy programs in the project area. It has taken up the challenge to implementing an adult literacy programme in the Kachauna block of Hardoi. The intervention in adult literacy began in August 2017, leveraging on their existing programmes in other fields by setting up Adult Literacy Centers (ALC) at community level. So far over 100 centers have been set up with members of the existing groups farmers group, SHG, CIG, SUG, joining these centers and have building goodwill in the community.

HCLF expanded this intervention to 10 Gram Panchayat n the block subsequently will be scaling up to other Gram Panchayats. New Concept has been engaged as the SBCC agency for developing communication strategy and a set of communication tools. It is also engaged in implementing the strategy on the ground through a team of BCC volunteers recruited from the respective GPs to run the communication campaign for adult literacy. The communication strategy is based in SBCC framework and target stakeholders at multiple levels.

The communication materials developed are a product of co-creation between the New Concept and HCL Foundation team working together from conception, needs assessment, pretesting, training and implementation. The focus of the SBCC intervention is to ensure sustainability at every stage, through capacity building and creation of local human capital, and mobilisation of resources. The communication kits consists of posters, wall painting, banners, flyers and situation cards, and animatics for SBCC (animation clips). There is a common theme running through the entire set of communication material. The campaign focuses mid-media and interpersonal media for advocacy and mobilisation. The target is reach out to over 35000 non-literates and bringing them to the Adult Learning Centers (ALC).