It all started with the nation wide (BJVJ) Bharat Jan Vigyan Jatha in 1987. Kalajatha requires extensive and detailed preparation with local organizing committees, with pre jatha ancillary activities, with book sales, with house to house fund collection etc.

Hundreds of thousands participated. It was not simple entertainment, it was not charismatic political leaders and it was not matinee idols. It was pure and simple science. And people came to learn, to learn with pleasure. Our rural people still maintain the child like curiosity, to know new timings. The All India Peoples’ Science Network was born in Feb 1988.

The Government of India approached the KSSP to help them organize a similar jatha, in Andhra and Orissa to place the agenda of literacy before the society. That was in March – April 1988. Discussions ensued and a dream emerged: to eradicate illiteracy from the whole of India.

The NLM, National Literacy Mission was formally born in May 1988. The first meeting of the Council was held in June 1988. KSSP has already been preparing for the TLC, Total Literacy Campaign, in Ernakulam district. During NLM council meeting Dr. M.P. Parameswaran the representative of KSSP was requested to conceive some thing big to churn the Nation and put literacy on the agenda. At the spur of the moment he replied: We should have a train Jatha. Give us four trains to travel across the country for three months with the message of literacy – A Vigyan Gadi".