“Reading books is a healthy habit and a wonderful way to develop cognitive, language, and social skills”.

Union Minister of Education, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan launched a 100-day reading campaign ‘Padhe Bharat’ on Saturday. The launch of the 100 Days Reading Campaign’ Padhe Bharat’ is in alignment with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020  which emphasises on the promotion of joyful reading culture for children by ensuring the availability of age-appropriate reading books for children in local/mother tongue/regional/tribal Language.

While launching the campaign, the minister underlined the importance of reading. He said that children need to develop a reading habit to ensure continuous and lifelong learning and if inculcated at an early age, helps in brain development and enhances imagination and provide a conducive learning environment for children. It helps children to relate to their surroundings and real-life situation, he added. He stressed the need to create an enabling environment in which students read for pleasure and develop their skills through a process that is enjoyable and sustainable and which remains with them for life.

About Padhe Bharat Reading Campaign

The reading campaign ‘Padhe Bharat’ will be organised for 100 days (14 weeks) starting from 1^st January 2022 to 10^th April 2022. The reading campaign aims to have the participation of all stakeholders at the national and state level including children, teachers, parents, community, educational administrators etc. One activity per week per group has been designed with the focus on making reading enjoyable and building a lifelong association with the joy of reading. This campaign has also been aligned with the vision and goals of the foundational Literacy and Numeracy mission. The 100 days reading campaign will also focus on Indian languages including mother tongue/local/regional languages. It is in this regard, 21st February which is celebrated as International Mother Tongue Day, has also been integrated with this campaign.