Why is India's Youth not reading anymore?

There is a stereotype about how electronic devices are pulling us away from books. Naysayers think we are raising a generation that doesn’t understand the value of literature. Maybe we’re still on the verge of a golden age of television. It’s like a cliché story that cast books as underdogs in a battle against digital terrine. Paper is the paladin and AMOLED is the brute.

This youth believes in digital media like Twitter, Facebook etc. People can’t put their eyes off the smartphone. Internet was a charitable gift to mankind. If we look down to this generation, the tender age got stuck to their smartphones for a lowly cause which encourages the bogus life.


What could be the reasons for fewer readers in India?

India is known for its culture where after God, parenting is worshiped and a child imbibes all the attributes from his/her parents. Therefore, foremost school of learning are parents and if we can project our morals, customs and values we can also reflect motivational reading habits through our course of actions. Also, kids are not encouraged to read books other than textbooks in schools. Teachers play an important role in the personality development of students but books play a vital role as well. India is known for its parenthood and education system but both failed when it came to encouraging reading habits. In other countries, initially, kids are introduced to comics and magazines but to our sadness, our country lacks such initiative as parents think comics and storybooks cause hindrance in studies but they fall flat to understand that it helps the children in developing reading habits.


This has in turn affected our generations inclination towards books. They are more inclined to social media, video games and less informative YouTube channels. Parents need to take responsibility for raising thoughtful, empathetic, open-minded adults. Books are an eminent part of this initiative. A book is a man’s best friend but this youth is only concerned with keeping up with their peer group. For them to show people that I am a reader is more important than to be one.






The positive side of Indian youth is that they are much aware and active. All their opinions are supported with facts which come from reading newspapers or blogs. Our nation does have avid readers. The wider spectrum of this contention is they are not just book worms but know how to balance social media, personal lives and professional worlds. They know that no useless television series can live those pages and those characters. But this number is very limited.


So lets have a look at the areas where we lag behind:

• Language as a barrier: India has 29 states with 22 official languages and the majority of people enjoy papers and stories in their regional languages. We are still in an era where one universal language (English) is not taught everywhere. 
• Daily life of Indians: We Indians are too busy in our lives where we hardly give time to reading books. We have college assignments, school homework or else we just waste time on our television screens or smartphones. 
• Internet and its effect: Though the internet is serving us greatly still it is cutting off people from real life happiness. Nothing can beat a good book with a cup of coffee on a rainy day. It would sound cliché but it’s better than spending time on any digital medium. 
• Lack of encouragement: Parents and teachers are the only people who encourage for anything. But these days they are just concerned about academics and are continuously neglecting the fact that books build the personality of a person. 
• Extensive use of Vocab: Redundancy in the language exhausts the readers as it creates complexity and readers start to loose interest easily. 

There are many more reasons for failures but we do have solutions to develop their interest.

• Starting with the start: Initiate with primary fairy tales, comics to develop a taste at a young age. 
• Read aloud sessions: The best way to be involved in something is to listen carefully. Arranging a gathering where one reads and others listen can promote reading habits. 

• Interactive sessions: Reading a book and discussing it in discussion sessions. This can help people discuss their ideas and opinions about their favorite characters or incidences from the books with others and further develop deeper reading skills. 
• Suitable genre: Kids can try and find a suitable genre for themselves which will help in developing an interest in reading. The key is to start reading whatever you come across and soon you will find a suitable genre for yourself. 

India has adopted the reading culture from the west but we are still trying to implement it fully. Books are something which allow you to live a character or walk you through a whole era. We must promote the reading of books and should promote others to do so. Even in this age of technology reading is beneficial and considered as a healthy habit. Reading helps us in developing many skills like personality development. Spending time on something worth is never wasted and what’s more worth than reading a book.

- Mohammad Anas



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