It was more than two decades ago when UNESCO declared the World Book Day to promote reading across the nations. Even more central to the agenda was the celebration of the joy that comes from reading books. This factor remains absent from many reading trends that we see in countries like India. Reading is mainly discussed from an educational point of view in our nation. Although, there have been many perspectives that continue to argue that reading is essential for the growth of any country.

Reading for pleasure is among the first steps to create a largely literate population, who are aware of their rights and overall society they live in. It is high time that we realize that reading for pleasure and education are two different, and equally important aspects of anyone’s growth. They are also interdependent on each other and together help towards the growth of a nation. It has been common practice to assume a country’s growth in terms of GDP and other such factors. However, with the introduction of Human Development Index, more crucial themes have been included in calculating the actual improvement in a region. The economic development of the society is thus dependent on the HDI which denotes the quality of life of citizens. One central part to this is literacy and reading habits. Surely, we do give importance to educational factors, which have also shown a steady rise in last decades but reading habits in general are not seen as a part of this. To see the relation between reading habits and growth, we can see the following example.

In case of HDI of different states in India, Kerala scores the highest with a score greater than 0.7. Literacy rates have also been at higher than 90% since a decade here. Now, improvements in infrastructure and general encouragement of education have contributed to this greatly, but another development must be noticed. The overall reading culture created over decades which includes, creating reading rooms, bookstores at every corner, and dedicated publishing of fictional books in regional language has contributed hugely to this. It is important to see here that these efforts are not merely for raising standards for educational reading, rather for reading in general. When we compare other important life factors of the state, we see that this culture has also contributed to the reduction in gap between sex ratios, poverty, and overall improved general awareness of citizens. It must also be noted that the state has among the highest consumers in India. These correlations have had a steady rise over the decades in ways that prove the aims of research done by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2002). Their claim was that children’s success is more related to the reading habits than their family’s social or economic status. These contribute to bridging the socio-economic gap among citizens in a long run.

Another factor which is actively contributing to this is the new generation of readers and publishers in India who have ventured into literary works of various languages. Several new publishing houses have provided opportunities to authors from diverse communities, allowing fresh voices to reach the audiences. Translations from regional and foreign languages have also contributed to the creation of a more inclusive and interactive space among readers. These new voices in different languages are crucial in overall development of the society as they provide a space for people and themes that have long been marginalised. Such interactions that emerge from their works not only bring together diverse communities but also tries to reduce the societies’ differences and stereotypes. In this sense, reading allows citizens to see and understand others in a more sensitive manner, which inarguably, is essential in a nation like India.

It is evident enough that there lies huge gap in resources and infrastructure to promote such habits across the nation. Thus, this slow growth as seen in India, requires attention from government and private parties alike to bridge the gap between readers and resources. Government needs to acknowledge the importance of reading and implement at policy levels to bring reading habits to all regions of the country. On the other hand, private groups and NGOs need to recognize the social and economic affects of reading habits and work together on creating environments that encourage reading and provide resources. Lastly, promotion of vernacular literature and writers is expected to create an audience of readers who read for pleasure. A crucial factor was noted among the reading trends, which depicts that regional languages fare more popularity among readers. In a report by National Book Trust it was found that there was a difference in number of young readers who read for leisure in urban and rural areas. Among the 25% of youth who read for pleasure, 53% were from rural India and 47% of these from urban areas. Hindi was claimed as the most read language for leisure by the young readers and English was preferred by only 5.3% of the surveyed groups. One can infer from this that even though urban areas are understood as more ‘educated’ regions, the habit of reading isn’t limited to this. Education surely does affect the reading habits but cannot be seen as the only indicator. This area needs more understanding and research to bring a generation of readers and educated citizens alike. This would require various groups working together to promote publishing and circulation of such books which are not necessarily targeted at cosmopolitan audiences.

To conclude, despite the many efforts in improving the quality of life of citizens, reading for pleasure remains as an area that requires more improvement in India. Literacy rates, early childhood development, and adult literacy are among the few main areas of focus for most groups. However, there is a need for more innovative practices that aim at spreading reading habits across diverse populations in India. This can only happen if reading habits are accepted as being crucial to the development of a nation. India’s growth in truer terms thus needs to be based on quality of citizens and not just economic growth.

We got an opportunity to work with food4thoughtfoundationas as a volunteer during our summer break. On 20th May 2019, third day of our internship we got a chance to visit the Gram Panchayat at Rudraram in Sangareddy district, Telangana

The students and staff at ZPHS were very welcoming when we went there. They all were very excited and were eagerly waiting for the Joy of Reading program to comments. Food4thought foundation has been associated with the school for a while and soon they are going to open a library there. They have been doing great work to encourage students to read beyond their academic books.

#IAMBOND has been very successful in inculcating the habit of reading in children and community member’s also. The foundation aims at building an enlightened nation by universalising access to books and creating joy of reading.

We were very excited to see the energy and the enthusiasm among the students and the staff members regarding the Joy of Reading programme. Students were given the option to choose between Telugu and English books and were asked to write the summary and draw a character from the book they have chosen. We organised an interactive game session with the students and everyone enjoyed it.

Further on other side Quiz program was organised for Community Members and very interestingly people came down and participated in the event. It was a learning experience to all of us to see an event is organised not only for Community students but also for village members and objective was to motivate them to build the habit of joy of reading.

The students who wrote the best summaries were given gifts which were sponsored by Green Gold Animation and the community members who won the quiz show were given individual gifts by Sarpanch sponsored by Signode India

We were very happy with response given by the students and the staff about Joy of Reading program. We would love to go back to such communities and share the Joy with more and more students and members.

It was great experience visiting the Gram Panchayat and to meet the students and the villagers and witness their enthusiasm towards the program. Thanks to Sarpanch who came forward to conduct this program with Food4thought foundation .A special thanks to Signode India for coming forward and supporting the organisation for building the reading habits in rural villages.

In the last as an icing on a cake our efforts were published in Namaste Telangana, Sangareddy Newspaper dt. 21st May 2019

Nandita C.R –Intern studying at P.OBUL Reddy Public School, Hyderabad and Niharika Patibandla-Intern studying at Fitzee World School , Ameerpet, Hyderabad

Thanks to NSS IIT Delhi (IITD) for extending their support to the concept of mobile library initiated by Food 4 Thought Foundation. IITs are undoubtedly ocean of knowledge and there can’t be a better place to test any concept of learning.
The library has been set up right at the place accessible to all and has been able to make an impact within a very short time.

A group of 10 students are involved in managing the library and spreading the awareness of joy of reading around the places which are closer to IITD. The students every Saturday/Sunday carry few books from the library on the basis of demographic area and carry them on cycles to the various centres that they have identified for Joy of Reading sessions i.e. kids of the slum areas of RK Puram Slum, Munirka slum, Rain Basera, Old Age Home. The students are enjoying the joy of reading as well as teaching the children too.

During the sessions they try their best to get the students involved into reading and motivate them to read the books independently. The Volunteers maintain a record of books issued to the children so that they can change the books for next session accordingly.

The objective of this project launched by NSSIIT Delhi in association with Food 4 Thought Foundation is to create a Model of Community Library for villages and schools wherein the libraries will help bridge the education gap.
Click below to watch the video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoOk2a3fSgo

 

We opened a library on 6th April 2016 at Laurels High School, Gwalior. Initially one library period per week was allotted to each class and our volunteer Ms. Vijaya Sharma also a Class Teacher for Class 3rd was given the responsibility of Librarian.

During the first few months, she observed that most of the library period were missed due to holidays/ exams/etc. Students were not satisfied as they hardly went to the library and could not read the books.

She then came up with an idea and discussed with the principal to allot the periods in the week, which are her free periods as per her timetable, and the respective teacher for the class/period is absent. Usually, the Principal would allot these periods to other subject teachers as the respective teacher was absent.

Ms. Vijaya Sharma started this unique concept of issuing the periods in her name and converted that period into library period. While she became the substitute teacher for that period, she would issue books to students to read for that entire hour. Students started loving the concept and would eagerly wait for her. They would also look for her in the school whenever they had a free period and request her to issue books.

Looking at this wonderful response from students, now the principal has implemented this concept for all the teachers and instructed all the substitute teachers to help the students read books and utilize the free period as Library Period.

We thank the Principal and Teachers for implementing this unique concept.

Book Reviews at Mullapa Village, Vijaywada.

Everyday in the morning assembly the Book reviews create enthusiasm among students. Each student wants to take a book and want to write a review on it. Mullapa Zilla Parishad High school initially started with local language- Telugu, so that the students are comfortable to come forward for a book review.  Within a few days the students where highly motivated and started reviewing books in small groups and followed by group discussions.

 

Looking at the motivation level and interest of the students building, and the regular reading habit setting in, the Principal started motivating the students to move towards the English books. With a little help and encouragement, the students soon got into the habit of reading books in English and graduated to a next level by giving book reviews in English at the school assembly.

 

We would like to thank the Principal of Mullapa Zilla Parishad High School for motivating the students and igniting a reading revolution among his students.

 

Introduction:

It’s high time to realise that we need Libraries in Schools/ Institutes/ Community. We are making efforts to see that the areas where we live in have at least a small library which is accessible to all.

Today, we blame it on the education system for not providing good teachers or no teachers and due to which the students don’t get good education. For a change let’s think about this issue differently. Instead of depending on anyone for help, why don’t we provide them the resources and teach them how to use it so to enhance their knowledge and thought process.  Further, when we speak of libraries the first thing that comes to one’s mind is a School or an Institute and why not a Community?  A Community library can play a larger role in bringing change in the society and enlighten the nation. 

Why we need a Community Library in every Village/City?

India has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35. It is expected that, in 2020, the average age of an Indian will be 29 years. With this statistics one can only imagine what would happen if the youth doesn’t have access to books. This way there will be no chance for prospects ahead for them.

Further as per UNESCO India has 47 million youth of secondary and higher secondary school-going age dropping out of school, according to a report by the Montreal-based UNESCO Institute for Statistics and Global Education Monitoring. The 47 million young men and women dropped out of school by the 10th standard, according to the 2016 report.

The enrolment rate in class 10 is 77 percent, but the enrolment rate in class 11 is only 52 per cent, according to a report from the New Delhi-based Institute for Policy Research Studies (PRS).

Enrolment rates declined by about half between class 11 and 12 and college, said the report, although university enrolments increased, in general, since 2008-09.

Looking at the above statistics it is very clear that we have to provide a platform to our students where they can enhance their knowledge; irrespective of the fact whether they  continue their education or not and this can be done by establishing a Community Library. A Community Library consisting all kinds of books from Literature/ Academics (Graduate/PG/References) will help the students pursue their studies at least through open examinations as the resources needed will be available in such libraries. Further it will give them a place to enhance their knowledge and thought process rather going through frustration, fear and loneliness.

Challenges for a Community Library:

According to the 2011 census of India, 68.84% of Indians (around 833.1 million people) live in 640,867 different villages. The size of these villages varies considerably. 236,004 Indian villages have a population of fewer than 500, while 3,976 villages have a population of 10,000.

With reference to the above data the biggest challenge which lies ahead is of who can support the Community Library in every village, arrange the place and help in managing the library. Well, the answers lie within every village itself i.e. they have to come forward and start this mission “bringing idle books to hungry minds”.

In Villages the Panchayat/Youth Community will have to play a vital role in coming forward and taking the responsibility of establishing a Community Library. There are a huge number of retired people/housewives in these villages who can spend 2 hrs running the library and that too in turns. Also the Panchayat could offer a small place where the books can be kept. Now the question arises- how to collect books? Well, there are number of NGOs like Food4thought foundation that is ready to support them with books, and even they themselves can go forward and conduct a book donation campaign in their nearby schools/colleges and collect the books to start the library. More importantly they have to create awareness among the communities about the importance of a library, why should we spend at least an hour there, how to use this library, and ways to support this library.

In this entire process of building a library, the biggest fear which lies is who will run it? Well the answers is very simple – the students. They need a place where they can get the resources. We just need to support them by providing the resources and place as they do not require any teachers to teach them how to read. These 47 million youth of secondary and higher secondary school dropouts have gained the basic knowledge of reading now they need just need resources to go ahead. Also with their support we can help those who cannot read at all or are finding difficulties in reading.

Thus let us all come together and pledge to help all those students living in these 6,40,867 villages(Communities) as these Community Libraries will help in the following ways:

• Make New Friends
• Build Knowledge Base
• Debate and Discuss on sensitive issues rather than boil
• Encourage reading by conducting activity around it

 Reference: http://www.firstpost.com/india/unesco-47-million-youth-in-india-drop-out-of-school-by-10th-standard-2961334.html

We the students of SPJIMR, Mumbai got an opportunity to work with Food4Thought Foundation as part of Social Sensitivity project. On the second day of our internship, we got an opportunity to visit the Mandal Parishad Primary School at Shamshiguda.

It was nostalgic to visit the school and look at the students playing around. We were amazed to see students who were filled great energies and they gave us a warm welcome. Food4thought has been associated with this school for a while and has been doing great work towards establishing library and encouraging students to read beyond their academic books. Several initiatives like Joy of Reading, #IamBond have been successful in encouraging more students to inculcate the habit of reading. Students mention the summary of their monthly reads, also sketch their favourite character in the IamBond passports.

We went to reward the students who have read the maximum number of books and who have best utilised the IamBond passports. They were very excited for the prize distribution, so were we. We have distributed prizes to the top readers of the month with the help of school principal. The principal encouraged all the students to regularly visit the library, read more so that a greater number of students will be rewarded next time. These gifts were tokens of appreciation for their efforts and for encouraging them to develop more reading habits which thus, becoming more aware of things around, also it was observed that students with more reading habits showed better academic performance. These gifts were sponsored by Chotta Bheem (Green Gold Animation).

We were elated to listen from the students about their experience with Joy of Reading and IamBond initiatives taken up by Food4Thought. When asked about her learnings through reading, Kushali, a 4th class student, told that her favourite book is NeetiKathalu(Moral Stories) and her favourite quote is “Never Harm anyone even if they’ve hurt you”. Thus, reading habits inculcate morals apart from knowledge.

It was an enriching experience visiting and interacting with young minds. Thanks to Food4Thought for providing us with this great opportunity.

Preethi and Snigdha
(Interns from SPJIMR, Mumbai)

In the first stage as a pilot project, Cluster Champion Mr Thenn Arasu took up the classes 5th and 6th and entire class was divided into 6 groups, and each were given a Champion and Name to the group. The objective was that the champion can look after their group and most important discipline is maintained; further see students’ issue and return of the books. Initially the students were asked to issue only Kannada books.
In the meantime, champions were taught how to identify the meaning of English words in the
dictionary and trained thoroughly so that they can carry forward in their team. In a span of 3 Months the Champion became experts and started helping their group in reading English books and identify meaning through Dictionary. Further the activities like Best Reader of Month, Spell Zone, India Reading Olympiad etc motivated the students to build interest in reading books from library.

Today the students don’t wait for Cluster Champion to come and open the library and issue the books. The student (Champion) in the library period/free period issue book to their group, help them in reading the English books, help in reading dictionary and most important maintain the library register of issue and return of the books.

Name of the School: Government Model Girls Primary School
Location: Bengaluru Classes: Class1st to 7th

Library – the treasure house of knowledge provides an individual various ideas and opportunities to live life better, keeps him away from daily worries and anxieties though for a short period of time, as he remains absorbed in new thoughts. It gives chance to an individual to reform himself and help him in realizing the past misdeeds. In short, it teaches individual how to be self-confident and educate him to be a better citizen of tomorrow.

To reform and to divert the mindset from vices to virtues, initiative has been taken up to set up libraries even in prisons/correctional canters.

In view of the above, unlike other Jails of the country and the world around, Library in Central Jail, Guwahati has also been set up.

About Central Jail Guwahati:
Central Jail, Guwahati, being the Largest in the whole of the Northeast India, growing as the MODEL Jail for other parts of the country. Though this Jail was established in the British period in 1881, at Fancy Bazar in Guwahati, but in 2010, it has been shifted with modern infrastructure at Lokhora, Sarusajai in Guwahati and the entire procedure of shifting was completed in the year 2012. This Jail has an area of around 80 (eighty) Bighas of land and it has a capacity of 900 Male inmates and 100 Female inmates. Presently it has been overcrowded with more than 1300 inmates comprising Male, Female and feeding children with their mother. Here in Central Jail, Guwahati there are various categories of prisoners such as Extremists of number of outfits, convicts, life convicts and Under Trial Prisoner’s (UTP). People from various communities having diverse languages and culture with ethnicity are lodged here and they share each other’s culture and tradition and live in harmony. In short there seems to be a kind of unity in diversity. This seems to be very special and appreciating among the inmates of this Jail.

Formation of Jail Library:
Considering the various communities of people being lodged in this Jail, the Jail Library has been equipped with Multilanguage books of various writers along with children’s books. There are books of writers such as Chetan Bhagat, Don Brown, APG Abdul Kalam Azad, Patterson, etc. As on 01-04-2019, The Central Jail Guwahati Library has all total 3034 No. of books. 1155 No. of Magazines/Periodicals are made available for the readers in Assamese, Bengali, Boro, Hindi and English language. Regular monthly Magazines (i) Wisdom, (II) Outlook, (III) Health Magazine, etc are provided to the readers in Library. Besides these, daily newspapers of various languages are also made available for the inmates to keep themselves upto date with the outside world.

Record reveals that the Office of the Inspector General of Prisons Assam, Khanapara, Guwahati-22 has provided good no. of books at the beginning, Various NGO’s such as Prison Ministry, Food 4 Thought Foundation along with the collaboration of Art of Living Foundation, Emannual Hospital Association, Universities such as IGNOU, K.K. Handique and many more have contributed a lot in the establishment and expansion of this Jail Library.

Food 4 Thought foundation alone has donated nearly 400 books of Multilanguage dimension. My special gratitude to the authorities for their novel contribution in this regard. Not only this, it has organized an All India level competition named as “India Reading Olympiad “at Hyderabad Literary Festival and awarded prizes to the winners in different categories. The inmates of this Jail namely Sri. Birlang Narzery, Mr. Basanta Doley are the lucky winners from this Jail further certificates were distributed to all the jail inmates who participated in the competition.
The library, which was very tiny for several years, became a fully established one because of the utmost efforts of these NGO’s and many unnamed book lovers. Even the inmates started contributing for the growing up of this Jail library. Thus, it is growing day by day and started organizing various literary programmers along with competitions to motivate readers with an initiative to reform them. This helped a lot in diverting the mind of the inmates from vices to virtues. They are developing tremendously and coming back to the mainstream of societies. This Jail Library is run by the Jail inmates under the In-Charge of a life convict Sri. Birlang Narzery. He is assisted by the other inmates to maintain daily records and the Jail authority supervise the entire process.
It has been noticed that some inmates who get release from this Jail, comes to meet the authorities and thanks for the mental support that he got while in prison. Thus, the process of reformation is in a full-fledged way in this Jail. There seems to be love and affection among the inmates as well as for the authorities. The inmates feel as if they are living in “HOSTEL”.

All this has become possible because of the strong support from the NGOs like Food 4 Thought foundation, Kama Bhumi Foundation, Prison Ministry, Shree Shree Ravi Sankar’s Art of living, etc. and motivation of the well-wishers. I just wish “May the Lord help us and support us in our work to reform the inmates in the best possible way so that when they get back to the main stream of society they can live a happy and prosperous life” .

Maneesh, a student at Delhi University was struggling for books when he came across Food4Thought Foundation at Kaizen-IIT Delhi.

Now, he has an experience to share.

My name is Maneesh. I am resident of Ambedkar Nagar, Grameen Shetra. At this point of time, I am pursuing my graduation from Delhi University. Friends, as to win a war weapon are important similarly books are important for studies. Without weapons its difficult to win a war even if the warrior is strong enough to win the battle.

Till class 12^th I always felt the necessity of books. As I belong to a poor family, I was not able to buy books. I loved books but due to financial conditions I had to depend on class notes and series. The same thing happened when I arrived in Delhi, but as it said, “Someone always come to help a thirsty”. Finally, the day arrived at IIT Delhi when I met the Director of Food4thoughtfoundation, Mrs Madhavi Sharma Madam. At all the stall I saw everything had a price tag on it but when I reached the Food4thoughtfoundation stall I heard that they provide books for free. I was happy when I heard that. After that my soul (Heart) finally spoke out, even in this age people are there to help others selflessly. There are some people to serve the needy and try to fulfil their wishes. When I got the books, I needed I was so happy, that I was left speechless. It is because of Food4thoughtfoundation that today I stood 1^st in my class.