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.