Spotlight: India aggressively developing reading habits among citizens

by Pankaj Yadav

NEW DELHI, April 22 (Xinhua) -- April 23 marks the World Book Day, the celebration of books and book-reading worldwide.

In India, extensive measures are taken by the government and non-government bodies to inculcate and promote the habit of book reading among children, youths, women and the elderly.

India's apex publishing organisation -- the National Book Trust (NBT) runs specially-designed buses taking books to the remotest villages in the country.

Set up in 1957, the NBT's objectives are to produce and encourage the production of good literature in all Indian languages, and make them available at moderate prices to the public, thereby encouraging reading habits.

One of the NBT's key functions is to organise book fairs across the country, the biggest one being the internationally known "New Delhi World Book Fair."

"We have as many as six buses in Delhi which we regularly sent in the form of mobile libraries to the northern states like Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, etc. The objective is to make available the books to the poor children in the society who live far off from cities and towns and have no access to books," she said.

The NBT also runs several book-clubs and mobile libraries with the sole objective to promote book reading. The Trust also runs several programs and schemes like setting up Book Promotion Centers and NBT Book Clubs for organising literary programs and book release functions and attract prospective book readers.

It also organizes the "National Book Week" on Nov. 14-20 every year, under which a number of special book promotional activities and literary programs are held throughout the country.

Lately, the NBT has also forayed largely into e-book publishing, mainly intended to cater to the demands of Indian diaspora and tech-savvy youths. The e-books are available in English, Hindi and in other Indian regional languages.

In order to promote children's literature, the NBT established the National Center for Children's Literature (NCCL) in 1993 for monitoring, coordinating and planning the publication of children's literature in different Indian languages.

Besides the central government's initiatives, non-government organizations (NGO) also play a key role in promoting reading habits, particularly among kids belonging to the lower strata of the society.

Rajneesh Kumar runs "Gyan Sagar Charitable Trust' in western Delhi's Lal Kuan area. It is dedicated to providing books in both Hindi and English to the poor children whose parents work as laborers or other petty jobs.

According to him, his organization has dedicated teams that go to different parts of the city catering to the needs of reading among the poor children. Enditem