‘It’s like reintroducing a lost language’: How parents, schools in Delhi are gently nudging kids from screens to books

Other parents are making similar trades. Delhi-based Shweta Arora curbed her son Anhad’s marathon gaming sessions by signing up the fourth-grader for cricket and swimming, while Noida mother Jyoti Karakoti Bajetha is reviving bedtime stories to break, what she calls, her children’s growing “addiction” to reels and shorts.

“At first, I felt relieved when I gave the phone to my child… mealtimes became easier,” says Arora.

“But, it came at a cost.”

Reviews by students of Tom Gates Is Absolutely Fantastic [at Some Things]. (Express photo by Sophiya Mathew)

Over time, the child started losing concentration and became aggressive. Her efforts are now to introduce her son to books, which she says “is like reintroducing a lost language”.

Several families in Delhi-NCR are now on a mission to help their children reclaim their imagination and curious spark — one book, one practice, and one page at a time.

Dr Bhavna Barmi, a senior clinical child psychologist at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute in Delhi, says that “compared to previous generations, today’s primary school children — especially in urban or semi-urban areas like Delhi NCR — are exposed to higher levels of digital content from an early age”.

As a result, she says reading as a leisure activity has declined. “Many children today associate reading with schoolwork rather than relaxation or imagination. There’s a reduction in deep, sustained reading. We see more fragmented attention, a preference for short texts like comic panels or YouTube shorts, and a reduced ability to follow longer narratives,” she adds.

Dr Barmi also says that parental time constraints and lifestyle changes have meant less shared reading at home, which was previously a norm in many households.

At some homes, though, the ritual is making a quiet comeback.

Salil Bhati, an avid reader himself, feared that the shelves filled with Amar Chitra Katha and books by Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton, which he’d lovingly stocked in his East of Kailash home for his two children, might never compete with the hypnotic glow of the digital world, especially after the pandemic.

Another worry was that the children were comparatively slow to pick up reading compared to their classmates.

So he started small: picture books of animals with a few sentences per page, mythological tales with bright illustrations, and simple adventure stories.

And the gentle approach paid off.
He still remembers the evening his daughter breezed through an entire book in one sitting. “That’s when I realised something had changed,” he says, laughing at how “even jazzy book covers” now stop the children in their tracks.

The siblings have also taken to the daily DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) session at Delhi Public School (DPS) East of Kailash, a school-wide pause when every student sinks into a book of choice for 15 minutes.

Bluebells International School in Kailash Colony has filled its junior library with colour-coded stacks, puppet nooks, Braille rows, and self-help-themed picture books. (Express photo by Sophiya Mathew)

How schools do their bit

Like DPS, several Delhi-NCR campuses have been pulling out every bibliophilic trick they know to draw children back into reading.

At Modern Public School, Shalimar Bagh, a programme called ‘The Human Library’ invites pupils to “borrow” their peers for one-on-one conversations.

“It helps children confront prejudice and stereotypes,” says Naina Nagpal, the school’s Primary Years Programme coordinator. “Members of the Health and Wellness Club share real-life stories — like living books — so classmates can question, discuss and replace myths with understanding.”

Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, Lodi Estate, set up its first-graders for the summer with audiobook links — like Meri Saheli (My Friend) on StoryWeaver — so a child can press play and follow the words.

At Tagore International School, Vasant Vihar, the low shelf in the junior library doubles as quiet therapy: self-esteem primers such as Alexandra Penfold’s Big Feelings and Emily Winfield Martin’s The Wonderful Things You Will Be sit beside classics like Cinderella.

Librarian Madhuri once doubted boys would pick the fairy tale book — until they checked it out as eagerly as anyone else.

Bluebells International School in Kailash Colony has filled its junior library with colour-coded stacks, puppet nooks, Braille rows, and self-help-themed picture books.

Meanwhile, at ITL Public School in Dwarka, Barkhaa, a reading series curated by the National Council of Educational Research and Training, is lined up by theme — food, games, animals — while at Ramjas International School in RK Puram, junior librarian Chandana Ghosh holds skits in her classes where students role play story characters.

What kids are reading

Librarians at these schools say the rule of a good book is simple: if it can coax a child to turn one more page, it earns a place on the shelf.

The thumbed spines reveal which ones are favourites.

At Bluebells International, body-positivity picture books such as Tyler Feder’s Bodies Are Cool and James and Lucy Catchpole’s You’re So Amazing! sit beside L. Pichon’s romp through a child’s dairy, titled Tom Gates Is Absolutely Fantastic [at Some Things].

A Class V reviewer has taped his review onto the library’s bulletin board: “… this book is all about school trips and I love it. I take this book with me wherever I go”.

Senior librarian Shweta Gulati clocks a steady demand for Ruskin Bond’s The Cherry Tree, Roald Dahl’s The Enormous Crocodile, Paro Anand’s classroom sketches in School Ahead, and Deepa Agarwal’s Himalayan quest Caravan to Tibet.
At Birla Vidya Niketan in Pushp Vihar, Asha Nehemiah’s whodunits, Roopa Pai’s mythology retellings, and Deepak Dalal’s eco-adventures are barely back on the shelves before they circulate again.

At Ramjas, Geronimo Stilton, Dog Man, and Cat Kid Comic Club are the most popular, along with encyclopedias about animals, planets, and space.

Community networks reflect a similar trend. The Free Libraries Network (FLN) — an online group of over 200 librarians, educators, and enthusiasts — reports that short books like Payal Kho Gayi, Gajapati Kulapati, Ismat ki Eid, Guthli Has Wings, and The Why Why Girl are especially popular among first-generation readers at the primary school level (whether or not they are formally enrolled).

Then there are small community libraries, tucked away in the city’s villages, which keep the joy of reading alive.

At one such space in Dwarka’s Sector 23, a 10-day summer camp, which began in the last week of May, is in full swing.

On day 4, nine first-generation readers — aged 5 to 13 — from Pochanpur village and nearby lanes perch on chairs a size too tall, feet dangling, eyes fixed on an assistant librarian holding an illustrated folktale.

“Gufa ke andar Aladdin bandh ho gaya… aapko kya lagta hai aage kya hoga? (Aladdin is trapped in the cave. What do you think will happen next?)”.

“Rub the chirag (lamp)!” one shouts.

“He won’t get out!” another guesses.

The librarian turns the page, smiling as every head follows.

“Children are curious. It’s access that they lack,” says Purnima Rao, FLN Director.

“Reading needs to be free, informal, and inclusive. If books are locked away in cupboards, kids won’t feel welcome,” she adds.

Back at Bhati’s home, there has been progress — his nine-year-old daughter now reads entire books aloud to her younger brother, who is in Class II.

“We never forced the children to read. It had to come naturally,” the father smiles.