News Room of Read India Books

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News Room

"No child’s play, but kids deserve the joy of reading" Times of India
- September 21, 2004

Eight-year-old Jahnavi barely stops for a breath once she starts reading from her favourite book, 'Tarangat, Tarangat' ('Floating'), about a child's imaginary flight in the sky. The little girl from a Dadar chawl is what Pratham, a voluntary organisation working in the field of education, is talking about when it says children have a hunger for books, a hunger that is not being satiated in the case of poor children.

Jahnavi was reading from one of the books released by Pratham at a press conference on Monday. The organisation released 50 illustrated books in four languages, all priced under Rs 20.

Pratham felt a need for books and a culture of reading after its survey in rural communities across 18 states threw up disturbing results. The study revealed that about 45% of children between the ages of seven and ten in government schools and 24% of those in private schools could not read words, leave alone sentences. While Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar were the worst off, in Mumbai 22% of children in Std V were illiterate.

It revealed that even by the time a child finished his/her "education", he/she was not literate. While in government schools across the country, 13% of children between 11 and 14 could not read words, 7% in private schools couldn't do so. In zillas across Mahrashtra where Pratham has implemented a sixweek programme focussed on improving students' reading skills, the kids showed significantly better skills.

Pratham aims at ensuring that every child has a book in hand and a library in the neighbourhood. In a little over a year, it has set up 3,000 libraries in community centres and even homes across the country. Sonali Angre, a teacher trainer from the Sion-Dharavi area, said the children generally returned the books they took in a day or two and came back for more. "There is a need for democratisation of education so that a poor child is not denied the joy of a book," said Girish Karnad, who has translated one of the books into Kannada.

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