P.N.Panicker

About P.N. Panicker-

• Puthuvayil Narayana Panicker was born in a Nair family on 1909 March 1 to Govinda Pillai and Janaky Amma at Neelamperoor, Kerala.
• He is the father of the Library and Literacy Movement in Kerala and is an eminent personality.
• In 1926 he started the Sanadanadharmam Library as a teacher in his hometown.
• Panicker led the formation of Thiruvithaamkoor Granthasala Sangham (Travancore Library Association) in 1945 with 47 rural libraries. 
• The slogan of the organization was ‘Read and Grow‘. 
• Later on, with the formation of Kerala State in 1956, it became Kerala Granthasala Sangham (KGS). 
• Libraries created by the movement of Panicker later became a nerve centre of all social and cultural activities of which the literary movement of Kerala is an impressive example.
• Grandhasala Sangham won the ‘Krupsakaya Award’ from UNESCO in 1975. 
• After his organization was taken over by the State, Panicker became subject to political interference and in 1977 he responded by founding the Kerala Association for Non-formal Education and Development (KANFED). 
• KANFED was instrumental in starting the Kerala State Literacy Mission, which led Kerala to its universal literacy movement. 
• Thus, Kerala became the first state which achieved universal literacy.
• Panicker died on 19 June 1995, at age 86.
• The Government of Kerala acknowledged his contributions and ordered that 19 June be observed, annually, as Vaayanadinam (READING DAY ). 
• In 2017, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared June 19, Kerala’s Reading Day, as National Reading Day in India.