Jamshedpur, March 1: If lack of finance is a hurdle for your child to continue with studies, help is at hand.

In an attempt to promote education among needy children of the steel city, The Gujarat Club, Jamshedpur, a city-based social and cultural organisation has come up with a textbook bank project to provide educational material to children free of cost.

The scheme, ?Vidyasetu Book Bank Project?, was launched today at a function on the premises of Gujarati Sanatan Samaj in Bistupur. Initially, only club members can avail of the scheme.

Smita Parikh, head of the club, announced the project?s launch. She expressed confidence in the project?s success and said it would play a vital role in promoting literacy.

Club officials said the book bank would collect books following the ICSE and CBSE syllabus. In the first phase, course books from Std V to Std X would be made available.

Depending on the response, the club will include books of the state educational board too, they added.

The project would work on a dual system. In one, the children would get the books after a nominal registration fee. In the other, the project would ensure exchange of books among students of junior and senior classes.

?Suppose a child who was in Class V and is promoted to Class VI, he or she can get the books of the new class in exchange of their old books,? said an official, adding that if a student was very poor and unable to give books in return, the club will provide him books at free of cost.

?It is a novel step and we are confident that it will help children to continue their studies despite financial crunches,? said Pasam Adeshra, a senior official of the Gujarat Club.

Adeshra added that the club would start lending books from new academic session, which starts from April.

The club has appealed to students to contribute textbooks they were not using to the bank.

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The project launch also witnessed a colourful function organised for schoolchildren who have completed their examinations.