As a part of the ‘You Read, They Learn’ (YRTL) initiative launched on 18 April, Hindustan Times has said it will contribute 5 paise from every metro copy in Delhi-NCR. To build on that initiative, Hindustan Times printed a beginner’s textbook (primary level - letters of the English and Hindi alphabet and numbers 1-10) in every copy of the newspaper in Delhi-NCR on 19 April.
In line with the initiative’s mission to help educate underprivileged children, every page of the newspaper included a page of a textbook. The intent was that by following three steps, readers could cut out these pages, staple them together to form a textbook and then share it with an underprivileged child.
In addition, there will be textbooks inserted in copies of Mint and Hindustan circulated in Delhi-NCR. The newspaper's hope is that readers will be able to reach out to over 1 million children in Delhi-NCR on a single day.
Sanjoy Narayan, editor-in-chief, Hindustan Times, said, Tthe text book is one of our initiatives to help readers join the ‘You Read, They Learn’ campaign by sharing it with needy children or even using it to help someone learn the alphabet. We are committed to ensuring that the YRTL initiative addresses the nation’s urgent need of raising its literacy level.”
Shantanu Bhanja, vice-president, marketing, HT Media Limited said, “We have had great response to the “You Read, They Learn” initiative launchedon 18 April, and wanted to enable each of our readers to take their own first step towards helping someone get an education. And we wanted to make a tangible impact in the shortest span of time. We decided that doing something in the paper could achieve both, and hence the idea of a beginner textbook which could be cut out and given. But for us, it’s just the beginning of a movement to bring about positive change.”