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Nuzhat Hassan Director, National Book Tr ust, India WHEN THE NATIONALBOOK TRUST, India was set up,its fo unding father Shri Jawaharlal Nehr u talked about NBT serving “as a kind of ‘book hospital’for finding out wh at generally stoodin the way ofbooks being purch ased and re ad. ” National Book Trust, India had got a sur- vey of Indian publishing done by NCAER on the occasionof itssilver jubilee celebrations in 1982. Since that time many momentous chang es have taken place,and the NBT fo und it the right time to take stock of the reading habits,patter ns,trends, attitudes,etc. among the yo uth of the country.
Our golden ju- bilee celebrations in the ye ar 2007 enabled us to take up the ini- tiative. I t is needless to say that fo r any large scale book promotion and publishing ve nture to succeed, it is imperative to find ways to connect and interact with the youth of the coun- try,which not only fo rms the largest ch unk of our population but demands a serious response from the intel- lectuals and publishers in terms of their reading needs in the fast ch anging socio-political and cultural landscape of our nation. With NCAER, the Trust formed an Advisory Committee of em- inent personalities from different walks of life, h o not only interacted with the NBT-NCAER team continuously bu t also guided and moulded thecontours of thestudy. The target group for the study taken is 13-35 ye ars and NBT,India hopes to take its findings right into the re alm of publicdebate so that a feasible ‘National Action Plan for the Re adership Deve lopment Among the Yo uth’ could be devised. Our ambitious plan is to make all youth in the age group of 15-25 years an ‘A ctive Re ader’ by the year 2025. Naturally,the targ et is ambitious, andtoachieve it we wish to enlist the help,guidance and sup- port of the policy makers,intellectuals,book love rs,publish- ng frater nity,youth leaders,social activists and the people of the country. Pro f Bipan Chandra Chairman, National BookTr ust,India NATIONAL BOOK TRUST, India was estab- lished in 1957 by our firstPrimeMinisterShri Jawaharlal Nehru as par t ofthe mammot h na- tion bu ilding exercise that was taken up immedi- at ely after the inde pendence in the social, political, economic and cultural fields. Theidea wasto create a public funded institutionthat could create good books,make them av ailable to the general readers at the af fordable prices and which wo uld keep finding ways to understand nd meet the reading needs of the masses at large. I think that of all the institutions that were founded to work in the cultural fields,the founding of an institution like NBT for creating a lear ning and book reading society was the most vi- sionary one. Itissobecause,whilemostof the institutions had a clear-cut target area like wo rk ing for the theatres,arts, liter- ature etc,NBT was asked to wo rk for the reading needs of the masses. Withhardlyonethirdof thepopulation literate at the time of India’s independence,to be able to visualiz e a society that needed to be nour- ished on progre ssive and secular books to under- tand and sustain the basic fo undations ofthe inde pendent India was masterstroke. The Trust has playe d a vital role in prov iding quality books to all target audience including ch ildren. Inthe light of the grow ing importance ofthe youth in the affairs of the country,the Trust took an initiative to frame a National Action Plan for the Re adership Development among the yo uth and entr usted the job ofunder taking the first ever National Yo uth Readership Survey from the perspective ofbook re ading habit to the NCAER, probably one of the best in the world to conduct such surveys and analy- es. Ibelieve that the findingsof thesurvey willopenup new windows to the understanding of the way the most energetic component ofour population thinks and behave s when it comes to books and re ading culture. Three out of ever y four youth in the countr y is literate. Ru ra l In dia accounts for around tw o-third of all 333-m illion literate youth. One in thre e literate youth in In dia is a student, around a fi fth are doing unpaid housework , and just over one in ten have a re gular salaried job or are wage earners. Te levision reaches 259-million and newspapers 17 7- million.
FE presents s peek into the fi rst- ever readership sur vey of literate In dian youth commissioned by Na tional Book Tr ust and conducted by Na tional Council of Applied Economic Research team led by Senior Fe llow Rajesh Shukla. The survey,co nducted in No vember-D ecember 2009, covered a sample of 659, 569 individuals, including 311,431 literate yo uth (13 -35 year olds), across 207 districts for rural and 199 towns for urban In dia.. Indian Yo uth: Demographics & Readership Vi tal To Un derstand Yo uth Reading Culture Lets Make Every 15-25 Ye ar-Old A Reader Perc eption and motivation
How did yo u start reading leisure books? (% of youth readers) % of youth re aders Le arned reading at school 59. 0 Pare nts encouraged to read 18. 8 Much later and ithas nothing todowith school orfamily 12. 5 Motivation of re ading (% of yo uth in agreement) Re aders Non-readers To tal Te acher encouraged to read in the school49. 5 19. 4 26. 9 Had specific period inschool timetable 20. 7 5. 8 9. 5 for leisure re ading Re ading period was interesting and useful83. 3 64. 7 74. 9 Re asons for decline in reading (% of youth in agreement) Re aders Non-readers To tal Adve nt of TV, Internet,e-books etc 53. 1 45. 47. 7 Po or reading culture1 8. 5 19. 5 19. 2 Lack of time 10. 9 12. 9 12. 3 Cost factor 7. 9 8. 4 8. 3 Lack of motivation 4. 4 4. 7 4. 6 Lack ofaccess to books 4. 2 8. 1 6. 9 Other 0. 9 1. 2 1. 1 Major source of information (% of yo uth) Te levision Newspaper Radio Magazine Internet Rural 69. 9 45. 9 20. 6 12. 0 1. 3 Urban 90. 8 65. 3 22. 5 21. 5 7. 7 To tal 77. 8 53. 2 21. 3 15. 6 3. 7 Pre ference of information (% of reported youth) Newspaper Magazine Te levision Radio Internet EEnntteerrttaaiinnmmeenntt99.. 443333.. 225533.. 885566.. 661144.. 55N Neewwss6633.. 441166.. 992222.. 222222.. 8855.. 66& ccuurrrreenntteevveennttssHealth 1. 1 10. 6 1. 5 2. 3 0. 3 Sports 8. 1 8. 3 8. 1 5. 8 1. 6 Re ligion 4. 1 7. 2 4. 4 2. 5 1. 1 Fa shion/ 0. 6 6. 5 1. 1 1. 3 2. 5 Pe rsonal care Po litics 4. 9 6. 0 3. 0 2. 0 1. 1 Others (Nature, 8. 4 11. 3 5. 9 6. 7 11. 2 market, matrimonial, etc) Place of exposure (% of re ported youth) Newspaper Magazine Television Radio Internet AAtthhoommee5500.. 667700.. 007744.. 887744.. 882233.. 44A Attwwoorrkk55.. 9933.. 9966.. 0066.. 001122.. 77School/Collages 4. 7 4. 1 0. 7 0. 7 6. 2 Library/1 . 3 3. 8 0. 4 0. 4 1. 8 Re ading club Neighbourhood 1144.. 558. 1 9. 2 9. 2 4. 4 Fr iends 5. 4. 9 3. 2 3. 2 5. 2 Shop/cafe/ 1166.. 883. 4 3. 2 3. 2 4466.. 11re staurants While trave lling 0. 5 1. 9 2. 4 2. 4 0. 2 Av erage time spent on different media (% distribution of yo uth by sources of information) (minutes) Newspaper Magazine Television Radio Internet ;15 27. 4 14. 1 2. 3 11. 3 7. 0 15-30 49. 1 44. 3 14. 4 37. 3 24. 5 30-60 19. 7 31. 9 32. 6 29. 2 43. 0 60-120 3. 0 7. 9 30. 9 15. 0 18. 7 ;120 0. 9 1. 8 19. 9 7. 2 6. 8 Av erage time spent (Minutes/day) 32. 4 43. 9 97. 6 60. 9 69. 9 Esti yo uth (in mn)177 52 259 71 12 Youth Book Reading Yo uth readers and their distribution by location
To tal estimated Yo uth Share of Distribution literate yo uth re aders re aders of readers million million (%of literate) % Rural 206. 6 44. 1 21 53 Urban 126. 1 39. 4 31 47 All India 332. 7 83. 4 25 100 YYoouutthhrreeaaddeerrssaannddtthheeiirrddiissttrriibbuuttiioonnbbyyrreeggiioonnTo tal estimated Yo uth Share of Distribution literate yo uth re aders re aders of readers million million (%of literate) % North 50. 0 10. 5 21% 13% South 77. 8 20. 1 26% 24% East 62. 7 18. 5 30% 22% We st 57. 9 18. 3 32% 22% Central 69. 8 10. 1 14% 12% North-East 13. 2 5. 6 43% 7% Others 1. 3 0. 3 25% 0. 4% To tal 332. 83. 4 25% 100% YYoouutthhrreeaaddeerrssaannddtthheeiirrddiissttrriibbuuttiioonnbbyyggeennddeerrTo tal estimated Yo uth Share of Distribution literate yo uth re aders re aders of readers million million (%of literate) % Male 186. 5 44. 3 24 53 Fe male 146. 2 39. 1 27 47 To tal 332. 7 83. 4 25 100 Tu esday, Fe bruary 9, 2010New Delhi 10 Special NATIONAL BOOK TRUST-NATIONAL COUNCIL OF APPLIED ECONOMIC RESEARCH NATIONAL YO UTH READERSHIP SURVEY 2009 Yo uth Demographics Po pulation (Million) Census NYRS 2009 2001 2009 Growth (%) To tal (All India) 1,029 1,213 2. 08 Yo uth (13-35 years) 390 459 2. 05
Literate youth (13-35 ye ars) 273 333 2. 49 Share of yo uth Yo uth to total population 37. 8% 37. 9% Literate yo uth to total population26. 6% 27. 4% Literate yo uth to total youth 70. 0% 72. 8% Distribution of literate yo uth by location Po pulation million %distribution Census NYRS Census NYRS Annual 2001 2009 2001 2009 growth (%) Rural 174. 8 206. 6 64. 0 62. 1 2. 11 Urban 98. 4 126. 1 36. 0 37. 9 3. 15 All India 273. 2 332. 7 100. 0 100. 0 2. 49 Pe r cent distribution of literate youth by religion Census 2001 NTYRS, 2009 ba sed on totalLiterate youth population population Hindu 80. 5 81. 5
Muslim 13. 4 13. 2 PPeerrcceennttddiissttrriibbuuttiioonnoofflliitteerraatteey yoouutthh((ppooppuullaattiioonn))bbyyssoocciiaallggrroouuppNSS, 2004-05 NYRS, 2009 ba sed on total Literate youth population population SC 19. 7 22. 7 ST 8. 5 9. 8 OBC 41. 1 40. 3 General 30. 8 27. 3 DDiissttrriibbuuttiioonnoofflliitteerraatteeyyoouutthhbbyyaaggeeggrroouuppPo pulation million %distribution Census NYRS Census NYRS Annual 2001 2009 2001 2009 growth (%) 13-19 yrs 112. 7 122. 0 41. 3 36. 7 0. 99 20-24 yrs 63. 4 73. 4 23. 2 22. 1 1. 84 25-35 yrs 97. 1 137. 3 35. 5 41. 3 4. 43 To tal 273. 2 332. 7 100. 0 100. 2. 49 DDiissttrriibbuuttiioonnoofflliitteerraatteeyyoouutthhbbyyGGeennddeerrPo pulation million %distribution Census NYRS Census NYRS Annual 2001 2009 2001 2009 growth (%) Male 159. 8 186. 5 58. 5 56. 1 1. 95 Fe male 113. 4 146. 2 41. 5 43. 9 3. 23 To tal 273. 2 332. 7 100. 0 100. 0 2. 49 Distribution of literate yo uth by level of education Po pulation million %distribution Census NYRS Census NYRS Annual 2001 2009 2001 2009 growth (%) Pr imary 102. 8 100. 3 37. 6 30. 1 -0. 31 Secondary 149. 6 200. 5 54. 8 60. 3 3. 73 Graduate+ 20. 8 31. 9 7. 6 9. 6 5. 49 To tal 273. 2 332. 7 100. 0 100. 0 2. 49
Distribution of literate yo uth by activity status (in %) Rural Urban All India Re gular salary & wages 8. 7 18. 2 12. 3 Self-employe d in non-agriculture7 . 3 8. 3 7. 7 Ag riculture labour 8. 0 1. 6 5. 6 Other (c asual) labour 9. 8 8. 5 9. 3 Self-employe d in agri & allied activity 8. 0 1. 1 5. 4 Unemploye d4 . 5 4. 9 4. 7 Student 31. 8 32. 6 32. 1 Unpaid housework 19. 8 20. 4 20. 1 Thre e four ths are re ligious, with highest propor tion amongst Sikhs (93%), followe d by Mu slims (78%), Christians (77%) and Hi ndus (75% ). One in three litera te yo uth believes in astrolog y,and half of th ese say that it is ased on scientifi c principles There are 83-million leisure book (non-syllabus) readers, of which 39-m illion (47%) are urban and 44-millon (53%) are rural. Hi ndi emerges as the most preferre d language for leisure re ading (33%) and English as the second preferre d language (43%) Yo uth Media Consumption YYoouutthhiinntteerreessttiinnsseelleecctteeddiissssuueess//ttooppiiccss–AAllllIInnddiiaaLiterate yo uth% Music /Films Current Af fairs Re ligious& spiritual Sports Cookery Science and technology Environmental pollution Po litics Fa shion 77. 5 71. 8 58. 9 54. 7 38. 7 35. 3 34. 4 30. 1 28. Subscription ofnewspapers & magazines % of literate yo uth households BByyLLooccaattiioonn1 5 5 Urban Rural To tal 12 39 24 8 BByyEEdduuccaattiioonnPr imary Matric HS Graduate Ne arly 24% households have newspaper subscription(15% rural, 39% urban) and 8% (5% rural, 12% urban) magazines. Fo ur out of ever y 7 households of graduate plus and, thre e out of ever y 8 urban households with literate youth ge t a newspaper Te levision remains as the most popular source of information wi th 78% (91% urban, 70% rural) youth viewer- ship. Ne wspaper comes second wi th 53% (65. 3% urban, 45. 9% rural) e adership, though it scores over te le vision when it comes to being the primar y source for ne ws & current affairs 9 2 23 6 38 13 57 23 News pa per Magazines PPrreeffeerrrreeddlleeiissuurreeaaccttiivviittiieess–AAllllIInnddiiaaLiterate yo uth% Surfing the net Re ading leisure books Sleeping Hobbies/Sports Listening to music Outing with family/friends Re ading newspaper/ magazines Wa tching television Others 1. 0 7. 5 9. 9 10. 7 12. 2 12. 7 14. 0 27. 9 4. 0 Pre ferred language to read print media (% of reported youth) RRuurraallUUrrbbaannAAllllIInnddiiaa PPrreeffeerrrreedd%%PPrreeffeerrrreedd%%PPrreeffeerrrreedd%%
LLaanngguuaaggeeSShhaarreeLLaanngguuaaggeeSShhaarreeLLaanngguuaaggeeSShhaarree 1H indi 39. 5 Hindi 37. 2 Hindi 38. 5 2M arathi 9. 4 Marathi 11. 8 Marathi 10. 5 3M alaya lam 9. 0 Ta mil 10. 9 Ta mil 8. 9 4T amil 7. 2 Gujarati 7. 0 Te lugu 6. 6 5T elugu 7. 0 Ka nnada 6. 6 Malaya lam 6. 6 6K annada 6. 3 Te lugu 6. 2 Ka nnada 6. 4 7B engali 5. 8 Bengali 6. 0 Bengali 5. 9 8G ujarati 4. 5 English 4. 1 Gujarati 5. 6 9O riya3 . 6 Malaya lam 3. 8 Oriya2 . 9 10 Assames e3 . 0 Oriya2 . 0 English 2. 5 11 Pu njabi 1. 3 Assamese 1. 3 Assamese 2. 2 12 English 1. 2 Urdu 1. 2 Pu njabi 1. 1 13 Others 2. 2 Others 1. Others 2. 2 Subscription ofnewspapers & magazines by sourceofincome % of literate yo uth households Ag riculture labour Self employe d in non-agriculture Casual labour Self employe d in non-agriculture Re gular salary & wages Others (pension etc) 10. 1 2. 9 11. 8 4. 3 15. 8 4. 0 29. 0 10. 9 10. 6 35. 6 39. 6 15. 5 Survey Sample Size and its Distribution Rural Urban All India II.. DDiissttrriiccttss//TToowwnnss220077119999440066I III.. VViillllaaggeess//UUrrbbaannwwaarrddss44332277553311,,118855I IIIII.. IInnddiivviidduuaallss((FFrraammee))22,,3399,,44336644,,2200,,11333366,,5599,,556699a. 0-12 years 17,006 26,998 44,004 b. 13-35 years (Illiterate) 32,622 26,503 59,125 c1 3-35 ye ars (Literate) 1,02,021 2,09,410 33,,1111,,443311dO ver 35 ye ars 87,787 1,57,222 2,45,009 IIVV.. SSaammpplleeYYoouutthh(13-35 ye ars, literate) 13,994 24,453 38,447 Magazines are a useful source to 15. 6% (21. 5% urban, 12. 0 % rural) of the yo uth. And nearly 21% (22. 5% urban, 20. 6 % rural) of yo uth listen to ra dio. In terne t is accessed by 3. 7% youth (7. 7 % urban, 1. 3% rural) News pa per Magazines * Youth = 13-35 years, Youth implies literate youth unless specified