Question : Vidyanjali Programme

(a) whether the Government has launched ‘Vidyanjali’, a school volunteer
programme recently and if so, the details thereof including the salient features
and its aims and objectives;
(b) the names of the States that will pilot the said programme;
(c) the extent to which the same has achieved success and the time by which the
said programme is likely to cover all the States in the country; and
(d) the steps taken/ being taken by the Government to inculcate reading habits
among children and reading culture at schools and community level in the
country?

MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(SHRI. PRAKASH JAVADEKAR)

(a): Yes, Madam. ‘Vidyanjali’, a School Volunteer programme was launched on
16th June, 2016. It is an initiative to enhance community and private sector
involvement in Government schools to strengthen implementation of co-scholastic
activities through the services of volunteers.
Volunteers under the programme will offer their services to Government
schools through an online portal developed by MyGov.in. The Volunteers will
conduct one or more co-scholastic activities with children such as reading to
children; helping children with creative writing; public speaking; play acting and
preparing story books.
(b): The programme is being piloted across 21 States/UTs namely Assam, Andhra
Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu &
Kashmir, Gujarat, Goa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur,
Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, Tripura, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.
(c): As per the data made available with the website Mygov.in, so far, 2005
schools have registered with the Vidyanjali Application (App) while, 2084 Apps.
have been downloaded and 1216 volunteers have logged in and registered for 815
activities in various schools. The program is voluntary in nature and States/UTs
that are willing may join the programme.
(d): The Ministry of Human Resource Development has taken many steps to
inculcate reading habits among children and reading culture at school and
community level in the country. The Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat (PBBB) was
launched in August, 2014 as a sub-programme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)
with the aim to ensure quality at the foundational years of schooling. The
objectives of the programme are to promote early reading and writing with
comprehension skills in children, and also basic numeracy skills. The activities
under PBBB include having dedicated teachers for classes I and II, setting up of
reading corners in classrooms, providing libraries in schools, having dedicated
period for reading in the school time table and availability of a variety of reading
material in the form of supplementary readers for children.
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