Gift books

The reading habit (during leisure hours) has to be cultivated, as also the habit of buying books every now and then for one's own personal library, and as gift. Some of my elderly friends and acquaintances have good personal libraries, but the owners complain that few request to borrow books. The reading and browsing of books is out of fashion, although magazines are still being purchased in many homes on regular basis.

The main bottleneck is the purchasing power of the middle and lower classes due to financial constraints. Many cannot afford even to subscribe to one daily newspaper. There are no local public libraries in EACH municipal ward to read the newspapers, magazines and books by those families with limited income.

This sector has to be subsidized initially through the government, the local philanthropists, Unesco and donor agencies. The infrastructure has to be built up into a network under crash, mid-term, and long-term projects.

This is a replicated area, needing "thrust" projects. The free primary education scheme of the government will create lakhs of new budding readers during the future decades. What they will read as pastime? At present fiction and poetry dominate. There are other areas, for the students and the wage-earners and careerists.

Further, the problems of the local publishers have to be looked into to make it a viable business, with limited sale and circulation of books. Very few publishers are interested outside textbooks, for reasons which have to be analyzed and identified as ins and outs to new future project profiles.

The problem of publishing books in English is more formidable, due to step motherly official attitude. The National Book Center and Bangla Academy have broader roles to play in encouraging the private sector to offer more books for leisure-hour reading, and to encourage book collection for personal libraries.

Linked with the local publishers are the problems of the local writers in getting their offerings scrutinized and short-listed for possible publication.

The creation of a one-stop centre would be very encouraging to the established and budding writers. The much-needed Coordinating Agency has to be announced by the government, for helping the private sector to stand on its feet. Some specialist NGOs can undertake valuable field services, as mobile libraries and sales outlets. Lastly, the Internet has to be activated for opening a window to the world.