- A mother who sells milk in interior Barasat came to buy books for her daughter
- A student from Dum Dum wanted to buy a book from his savings but was falling short of Rs 20. One of his teachers gave him the money
An organisation has been holding book fairs in government schools where a large section of children is first-generation learners.
The idea is to give them access to books. If any student is unwilling to buy books, he/she can read them during lunch break.
“We want to make books accessible to children from poor families. Unless we create an opportunity for them how can we expect them to be interested in books,” said Manjir Ghosh, former principal and founder director of Educhange, the organisation that holds the fair in schools.
According to Ghosh, so far they have held seven book fairs. They target remote places where access to books is even more limited. During a fair held in a school in Barasat recently, a mother who sells milk was among the visitors. She never went to school herself but wanted her daughter to study.
“I will visit again if I manage to sell all the milk,” she had told the organisers before walking out of the school.
She returned a few hours later and bought a book for her daughter who is in Class III.
In another school in Garia, three Class XI girls pooled to buy two books — one about Karl Marx and the other about Adolf Hitler.
“Not every student could buy books but several of them read books during breaks,” said Soma Ghosh Das, assistant teacher at Swamiji Vidyapeeth High School in Boral, Garia. Ghosh Das said that a large portion of the students come from poor families.
“Fathers are auto drivers or shopkeepers and mothers work as domestic help,” said Ghosh Das.
It is for schools to create opportunities and avenues because for many of these parents it is practically impossible to take their children to a book fair, she said.
“It is not enough to provide them with textbooks but give them supplementary books that would interest them,” said one of the organisers.
One heartwarming thing that the organisers noticed was that teachers at a number of schools came forward to help students with money when they ran short while buying a book.
