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Tonga wheels in joy of learning
THIS MORNING, when eight year old Trishna saw a tonga full of books standing in her basti, she was amazed. When she was asked to pick a book of her choice, she picked up a colourful comic. It was the first time she saw a book like that.
THIS MORNING, when eight year old Trishna saw a tonga full of books standing in her basti, she was amazed. When she was asked to pick a book of her choice, she picked up a colourful comic. It was the first time she saw a book like that.
Tonga library is an initiative started by NGO Pratham working in the field of promoting elementary education among deprived kids. The NGO runs mobile libraries in slum colonies where children have no access either to schools or books. Even if they do, their reading is limited only to textbooks. The concept has been created to inculcate and promote the habit of reading among children.
Tonga library was launched in Bandikhera Alambagh on Friday where children enjoyed reading books especially when they were asked to choose books of their choice. The library would be introduced in all 219 colonies where Pratham is running its alternative learning centres for children of people living below poverty line, informed Smitin Brid from Pratham.
The tonga would carry around 200 books of various publications like National Book Trust, Children Book Trust, Pratham Publications and Scholastic Publications in the ‘basti’ and move door to door for kids to select the books of their own choice. Tonga was chosen for library because children can easily relate with it and can enjoy the ride too.
It would also work as a resource centre for the Basti Library where an NGO representative would even read out stories to children who can not learn. It’s basically to introduce fun learning concept among under privileged children, he added.
