INTRODUCTION Before, I was a 'little ignorant'. I didn't know what was happening. I didn't care what was happening around me ... But now, now I at least know something. Now I am a person who knows. I am another person! Agripina Today we are witnessing an unprecedented drive for education throughout the world. Efforts to increa$e the incidence of literacy among adults form an important part of this drive, particularly in "underdeveloped" countries. But ·what happens to an adult in such settings, once he becomes literate, no one really knows. Prior research provides no evidence and few clues as to the personal and social implications of newly acquired adult literacy. This is the central problem toward which the present study is addressed.