The National Book Trust (NBT) has been successful in catering to a mass readership, judging by the encouraging response to its mobile book exhibition that was started mainly to reach out to rural folk.
Specially designed vans with books in Hindi, English and regional languages stationed in rural towns and villages are stationed for two days at a spot and provide books priced at Rs 5 onwards.
“The mobile exhibition is a unique concept aimed at taking exhibitions to far-flung areas, giving rural Indians a chance to buy these books at reduced prices and enhance their reading habit,” said Subir Dutta, deputy director of NBT. “With the kind of response we are receiving from these places, NBT is planning to purchase a few more mobile vans to add to its 10-van fleet,” Dutta said.
The vans are sent out simultaneously on a 35-day tour from the NBT headquarters in New Delhi with two officials in charge. On their return, the mobile units are sent to fresh destinations.
NBT has just completed its tour of 48 districts of Madhya Pradesh and is planning to tour Orissa, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Taking up the mission zealously, officials sometimes get politicians, literary figures and other well-known personalities to inaugurate the exhibitions.
