Several autorickshaw drivers have determined to maintain books and booklets of their automobiles, for each kids and older passengers.(Representative Image)
The president of the Women’s Autorickshaw Union, Soni Shendge, who has been driving an autorickshaw for the final one 12 months stated that she has a group of books in English and Marathi
The auto-rickshaw drivers of Pune launched an distinctive marketing campaign on Saturday making an attempt to encourage passengers particularly kids to learn books as a substitute of being hooked to their cell phones. The initiative comes at a time when the Pune Book Festival hosted by the National Book Trust started on Saturday.
As per an Indian Express report, a number of auto-rickshaw drivers have determined to maintain books and booklets of their automobiles, for each kids and older passengers.
The president of the Women’s Autorickshaw Union, Soni Shendge, who has been driving an autorickshaw for the final one 12 months stated that she has a group of books in English and Marathi. She and her husband, who additionally drives an autorickshaw, are part of the marketing campaign.
In a dialog with Express about how she carried books on the lives of Chhatrapati Shivaji and BR Ambedkar, Shendge stated, “I educate children about Ambedkar’s struggles for water and the challenges he encountered in his life.”
She additionally stated that the web distances folks, notably kids, away from books and “the real world”.
The extra they learn, the extra educated they may change into. Am I proper?” Shendge added whereas asking a toddler who was sitting along with his mom in the again of her autorickshaw.
An auto-rickshaw driver from Vishrantwadi, Pramod Naiknaware stated that beforehand he used to provide books and newspapers to his older passengers, nonetheless not many individuals had been .
He additional stated, as quoted by Indian Express, “I knew that senior citizens read newspapers more than people of any other age group. Thus I started keeping newspapers for them but over the time, even they stopped reading them. So I stopped offering.”
Due to monetary difficulties Naiknaware was left with the solely choice of working an autorickshaw to make a dwelling.
However he doesn’t need his sons, who’re at present school-goers, to take up his career. He additionally stated that Covid affected their monetary stability and their research.
“I reached out to the school for support, and now one of my children receives free education, while the other receives some concession,” the auto-rickshaw driver added.
In one other case, Gopal Bandal from Katraj spoke about how cell phones had changed books in the final ten years He stated that for tutorial discussions and updates, his kids’s college depends on WhatsApp teams. However he stated that finds it extraordinarily ineffective.
He pressured on the significance of training and thereby stated, “I studied up to Class 10. There is a common perception that auto drivers are troublemakers. However, efforts like this campaign will also change the misconceptions in society.”
Bandal, who can be part of the marketing campaign, stated that auto-rickshaw drivers will probably be exchanging books to maintain of their automobiles. Expressing his dedication to proceed the marketing campaign, he stated that it was a short lived concept that got here up in our minds, however he he appears to be like ahead to hold it forward.
