CHANDIGARH: Celebrating 161st anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, the 4th Kitaban Da Langar-books donation drive was organized by Yuvsatta-NGO in collaboration with State Legal Services Authority (SLSA), Chandigarh at Government Girls Model Sr. Sec. School, Sector 18C, Chandigarh.
Justice Ritu Bahri, Judge, Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chandigarh and Chairperson, State Legal Services Authority, Chandigarh was the Chief Guest on the occasion and prominent amongst those who participated included Mr. Surender Kumar, Additional District and Sessions Judge and Member Secretary, State Legal Services Authority, Chandigarh, Mrs. Prabhjot Kaur, DEO, Ms. Eva Rao, Social worker, Ms. Reeta Kohli, Sr. Advocate, Mr. Pramod Sharma, Coordinator, Yuvsatta-NGO and Mrs. Raj Bala, Principal, Govt. Girls Model Sr. Sec. School, Sector 18C, Chandigarh.
Justice Ritu Bahri honoured the heads and representatives of twenty-four partner schools of the initiative, whose students contributed over 4000 books for marginalized kids in slum settlements and rural areas and also gifted beautiful plants on the eve of Eid at Jama Masjid, Sector 20, Chandigarh. These schools are New Public School, St. Joseph’s Sr. Sec. School, Delhi Public School, Govt. Model Sr. Sec School, TM, Sector 26, AKSIPS-45, Govt. Model Sr. Sec. School, Dhanas, Gurukul Global School, IS Dev Samaj Sr. Sec. School, AKSIPS Smart School, Sector 41B, PMLSD Public School, Kids-R-kids School, Ankur School, Govt. High School, Sector 30A, Manav Rachna International School, RIMT World School, MDAV School, Govt, Model Sr. Sec. School, Sector 8B, Kundan International School, Sacred Heart Sr. Sec. School, St. Kabir School, Bhavan Vidyalaya, St. Soldier International School, Govt. Girls Model Sr. Sec. School, Sector 18C and St. John’s High School, Chandigarh.
Appreciating this novel idea of ‘Kitaban Da Langar’ to promote the joy of reading among more and more children, Justice Ritu Bahri shared that a good book can inform you, enlighten you and lead you in the right direction. And instead of wasting time on social media sites, young students should make books their lifelong friends. As beloved books we read as kids can stay with us all our lives. She also added that good reading habits not only increases one’s knowledge, memory, analytical thinking skills & improves concentration but good books also make us a better human being. Our goal is to ensure all children prosper and feel a sense of belonging in their community.
Mrs. Raj Bala, Principal said that books exchange is a novel idea, whereby young students can not only read more and more new books in their coming holidays, but as they’ll also by reusing books, so they’ll be in fact reducing Carbon footprint, saving trees and saving expenses on buying the books.
Mr. Surender Kumar, Member Secretary, SLSA, Chandigarh shared that it was heartening to see participating Schools' response to this ‘Kitaban Da Langar-Books donation’ drive. And through the power of books, children can explore our many different cultures and lifestyles, challenges and strengths, and backgrounds and beliefs. Exploration leads to awareness, which leads to appreciation, which leads to kindness and empathy.
In his concluding remarks, Mr. Pramod Sharma, coordinator of Yuvsatta-NGO said that they envisioned a world where books were available to all, without the barriers of location or cost. So, they will continue to hold more and more such programmes in future. As this way students and teachers can feel the joy of giving, it lets someone else also have the pleasure of reading that book. And this way the culture of reading and sharing is developed, especially among young minds.