The North-Eastern States, known for its great scenic beauty on the one hand and internal strife on the other, is also one of the most well-read, according to a recent study.
The National Book Trust study has found that a larger number of youth in the North-East invest in reading books other than text-books.
Despite economic challenges, the NAGMAMI region (Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram) has the highest proportion of leisure readers at 67 per cent, which is closely followed by Assam at 41 per cent, according to the Youth of North-East India: Demographics and Readership report.
This is in sharp contrast to Maharashtra, which is the country’s most economically well-off State, but where only 34 per cent of literate youth spent their time in extra-curricular reading. The study has also found that at 85 per cent, the central States have the largest population of non-readers.
At a pan-India level, 25 per cent of the literate population spends time in reading for leisure. As expected, the study has found that there are more readers in urban areas (31.2 per cent) than in rural areas (21.3 per cent).
Gunjan Veda, Chief Executive Officer of online book rental library and bookstore IndiaReads, said, “I am not surprised (with the findings of the study). When we organised a book fair in Aizwal, we took six to seven times the number of books we usually carry for the Delhi Book Fair. On the first day itself, the books were sold out.”
Access, a problem
She added that people in Aizwal lapped up expensive books that sometimes go unsold even in major markets such as Delhi and Mumbai. “There was no haggling for discounts,” she said with a laugh.
In the NAGMAMI region, as much as 85 per cent of the urban populace and 59 per cent of rural dwellers are readers.
However, the North-East region is greatly deprived of access to books, despite an obviously large demand. Veda said many people go as far as Kolkata to buy books, since access is a big problem.
“Access is the biggest problem for readers in North-East. Also, not too many physical bookstores are coming up. The reason for that is again accessibility. Getting books there is a huge problem.”