Free Braille books, Viksit Bharat stalls: World Book Fair portrays ‘multilingual India’ this year

Amit Kumar Singh, head of public relations (PR) at National Book Trust, told The Indian Express: “This year, the book fair’s theme represents women from multi-lingual backgrounds. A woman who receives equal opportunities and exposure is believed to be often fluent and teach at least three different languages to the future generations. So, the fair is revolving around this theme this year.”

Spread across five halls at the newly built Pragati Maidan Convention Centre, the fair offers books covering a wide range of genres for purchase, as well as free books to people with disabilities — under the collaboration of the National Book Trust with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

This year, the guest country for the fair is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. “Individuals (visually impaired) with or without a Unique Disabilities Identification can register here to avail free Braille books. This initiative has been taken for the first time, with the collaboration of the Ministry of Education and Social Justice Empowerment,” said Singh.

While one corner of the convention centre was filled with school students in different uniforms attending a storytelling session at the Children’s Pavilion, another corner had enthusiasts from different age groups — both young and old — enjoying the ‘digital Modi selfie’ feature at the Vikshit Bharat stall.

Amongst other interesting features in this year’s fair was the concept of a dark room, where children can write to their favorite authors on a postcard and send a free book of their author’s choice, said an official, National Book Trust.

Large screens with the NaMo app have been installed at the stall’s entrance on which one can click a selfie with a photograph of the Prime Minister and receive the digital version instantly by putting contact details.

“About 3,000 people have given their feedback at the Viksit Bharat stall so far, and clicked selfies with Modiji…,” said Pradeep Kumar, a volunteer with the NaMo app for about five years. Among other features of the stall were pictures of the Prime Minister inaugurating the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, and e-books written by him. People can also provide their feedback on various Central government schemes and suggestions for the manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.