Democratizing The Joy of Reading – Akshara Foundation and Pratham Books

When she found herself suddenly wealthy, the Indian philanthropist founded Pratham Books, a nonprofit publisher that uses innovative ways to put low-cost books in the hands of millions of kids. “My mission is to put a book in every child’s hand,” says Rohini Nilekani That’s an ambitious goal anywhere, but especially in India, where there […]

ON International Literacy Day, it is time to do some stock-taking. And statistics do not console when it comes to the continuing high rate of school dropouts and the inability of even 50 percent of children going to government schools to read fluently. But the picture is not entirely bleak. In Bangalore, the Akshara Foundation […]

Nandan Nilekani, managing director, Infosys Technologies Ltd and Rohini Nilekani, promoter trustee of the Akshara and Arghyam Trust foundations and trustee Pratham. Rohini has promoted the Akshara Eoundation to improve learning outcomes in municipal schools in Bangalore and the Arghyam Trust Foundation to research ways and means to improve water availability to socio-economically disadvantaged citizens, […]

What is a good time to introduce a child to books? Different parents may have different answers. I found the right age to be six months. For both my children, I had cloth, plastic or board books about animals or very simple stories with repetitive words. I would show them the books, and slowly read […]