Hindustan Times launches 'You Read, They Learn' initiative

Launched initially in Delhi-NCR, the year-long initiative to help educate underprivileged children

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | April 19, 2012

Hindustan Times, one of India's leading English dailies, announces the launch of 'You Read, They Learn' or YRTL, a year-long initiative to help educate underprivileged children.

As a part of this initiative, launched initially in Delhi-NCR, HT will contribute 5 paise every day from every Metro copy of Hindustan Times sold in Delhi-NCR towards creating a corpus which will fund the education of over 10,000 children over the year. So every time you pick up a copy of Hindustan Times, a child goes to school. Besides this contribution, HT will raise the issue of children's education rights and focus on the problems that need immediate attention and will strive to find solutions.

Commenting on the occasion, Rajiv Verma, CEO of HT Media Limited, said, “We at Hindustan Times strongly believe that a newspaper has the ability to drive positive change in society. As a newspaper, we are intrinsically linked to the cause of education. With this initiative, we wish to contribute strongly in the space of pre-primary and primary education as we believe that education is every child's right.”

“To begin with, HT is partnering with Pratham Delhi Education Initiative and Child Rights And You (CRY) to utilise the funds for bringing underprivileged children to the classroom. Going forward, we will also engage with other NGO partners working in this space,” he further added.

Sanjoy Narayan, Editor-in-Chief, Hindustan Times said, “We at HT are proud to launch the 'You Read, They Learn' initiative and seek active participation from our readers. Our reporters and writers will dig out stories of change, of people making a difference and of readers' contribution to the lives of children whom nobody has time for. ”

Shantanu Bhanja, VP-Marketing, HT Media Ltd, said, "As socially conscious citizens, our readers want to do their bit for society, but are usually constrained by time. The YRTL initiative allows them to contribute to a meaningful cause in the course of their daily life."

Soha Moitra, Director, CRY—Child Rights and You said, “Two years after the implementation of the RTE Act, 2009, providing free and compulsory education to all continues to remain a challenge. While there is an urgent need to strengthen the delivery mechanisms, there is also a greater need to make public aware of the issue. It will require the active participation of each and every Indian citizen to make the dream of every child, to be in school and learn well, a reality.”

Commenting on the partnership, Shailendra Sharma, Executive Director of Pratham Delhi said, “We are privileged to have Hindustan Times partner our community based pre-school programme. This will go a long way in reinforcing the role of early childhood education in meeting the objectives of right to education."

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