When reading habit of people, especially students, is on the wane, a movement, for the last 13 years, in rural Keonjhar district, has been promoting children to develop reading habit.
The Vivekananda Pathak Manch of Nuarampas under the leadership of poet, translator and writer Rabindra Kumar Nayak has been carrying out the sustained campaign to boost creativity among the school children and motivate them for a reading habit.
The Manch organises competitions among the students on different literary skills, besides choosing best students who have read maximum numbers of books.
This year, the Manch held its 13th edition of felicitation ceremony on December 31 at the Nuarampas ME School where successful children in different competitions held earlier were awarded.
About 300 students from 40 schools under Hatadihi block had participated in tests held in different areas like best reader, instant poetry composition, elocution, song and satire writing on December 10 at Japidas Bidya Mandir , Badarampas.
Mukundapurpatna Sarpanch Arnnapurna Dehury attended as chief guest on the felicitation ceremony. Besides, children writer and Odisha Sahitya Akademi member Ramchandra Nayak, scribe and social activist Sanjay Mishra, poet and Panchant Extension Officer Chitaranjan Nayak, educationists Dheneswar Parida, Nrusingha Charan Panda and Benudhar Sahu attended as guests. About 30 poets joined and read poems. Smurti Sangita Nayak and Saiba Panda were awarded as best readers in junior and senior categories.
Ramchandra Nayak and Arnnapurna Dehury were felicitated on the occasion. Magazine ‘Gitijhara’ comprising the instant poems by the children was inaugurated.