Renowned authors have issued a compelling call to revive reading habits among students and promote indigenous literature during the inaugural session of the first East Singhbhum Literary Festival in Jamshedpur.
Jerry Pinto's 10-Minute Reading Challenge
Jerry Pinto, the acclaimed writer who won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2016, emphasized a simple yet powerful routine for the youth. He urged school and college students in the city to dedicate a minimum of ten minutes every day to reading books, newspapers, or magazines beyond their standard curriculum.
The author, famous for works like 'Murder in Mahim', explained the tangible benefit of this habit. "If a student spends just 10 minutes daily on non-academic reading, he or she will enrich their vocabulary with more than 100 new words and gain vast knowledge by the week's end," Pinto stated.
Expressing concern over the current trend, the Mumbai-based author, who is now working on a book about palliative care, noted that young people are increasingly avoiding fiction and non-fiction books, preferring to scroll through their mobile phones. He appealed for greater governmental effort to attract Generation Z towards books.
Taking Literary Festivals to the Grassroots
Pinto also proposed a decentralized approach to foster a reading culture. He suggested that literary festivals should be organized at the panchayat level across the country. This initiative, he believes, would allow rural youth to interact directly with famous authors, thereby sparking their interest in reading.
Anuj Lugun's Plea for Tribal Literature
Echoing the need for literary promotion but from a different perspective, Anuj Lugun shared his concerns with the press. Lugun, a tribal poet and author who received the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar in 2019, pointed out a glaring disparity.
"It is sad that while Adivasi dresses and cuisines from Jharkhand are gaining global recognition, our literary works are not," he lamented. He called for concrete steps to elevate the state's indigenous literary heritage.
Government Action for Adivasi Languages
Lugun presented a multi-point plan to support tribal literature. His primary recommendation was for the Jharkhand government to establish more tribal academies. These institutions would empower the younger generation to write books in various Adivasi languages.
Furthermore, he encouraged more authors and poets to regularly publish works in Adivasi languages and insisted that the government must provide all necessary assistance to such writers in Jharkhand. For sustained growth, Lugun emphasized the need for academic integration. He advocated for more universities in the state to include Adivasi languages in their curriculum, taught by properly qualified teachers.
The inaugural East Singhbhum Literary Festival thus served as a platform for two crucial messages: reigniting the simple habit of daily reading among students and implementing systemic support to bring the rich literary traditions of Jharkhand's tribal communities into the mainstream.
