Kochi, May 5 -- KV Rabiya, a wheelchair-bound social activist who championed and expanded the boundaries of Kerala's literacy campaign among adults, died on Sunday at a relative's home in Malappuram district following a brief illness and a long battle with cancer, her family said. She was 59.

Rabiya, who was born on February 25,1966 as the second of six children of Moosakutty Haji and Beeyachutty Hajjumma in the small village of Vellilakadu in Malappuram district, was diagnosed with polio at the age of 14 and had her further studies confined to her home and bound to a wheelchair.

After completing her initial schooling at the Government high school in Tirurangadi, Rabiya enrolled for a pre-degree course at the PSMO College in Tirurangadi...