INDIAN YOUTH Demographics and Readership

Results from the National Youth Readership Survey

This National Youth Readership Survey has been undertaken under the National Action Plan for the Readership Development among the Youth (NAPRDY) mooted by National Book Trust, India with a vision to make all youth in the 15-25 age group an Active Reader by 2025. The motto of NAPRDY is ‘Bringing Youth and Books Closer’.

© National Book Trust, India and National Council of Applied Economic Research, 2010

Rs. 000.00

Published by the Director, National Book Trust, India, Nehru Bhawan, 5 Institutional Area, Phase II, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi - 110 070

_ The youth population in India (13-35 years) was 459 million, constituting about 38 per cent of the total population of the country, and is expected to reach 574 million by 2020.

_ The population of literate youth was 333 million in 2009, which accounts for 27.4 per cent of the country’s total population and about 73 per cent of the total youth population. Population of literate youths has grown at 2.49 per cent between 2001 and 2009, which is higher than the overall population growth (2.08%). Growth was more rapid in urban India (3.15% per annum) than rural (2.11%).

_ It is significant that of the total literate youth, 62 per cent (206.6 million) live in rural areas and the rest (126.1 million) in urban areas. Of all the literate youth in the country, about 44 per cent are females.

_ The average age of the Indian youth to complete their highest education level is around 15 years, which means most Indian youth drop out without going for further education beyond 15 years of age.

_ About 82 per cent of the total estimated literate youth are Hindus, 13 per cent are Muslims, and 2 per cent each Sikh and Christian. The share of Hindus increases with the level of education; however, in the case of other religions, particularly Muslims, the shares at different educational levels show a visible declining trend.

_ A higher proportion of the literate youth comes from households whose main source of income is regular salary/wages(33%) followed by ‘self-employment in agriculture’(31%).

_ Hindi is the principal medium of instruction; however, as the youth go for higher education the proportion of Hindi as the medium of instruction declines.

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_ Amongst the literate youth, the highest proportion (41%) belongs to the age group 25-35 years, which is the primary work force of the country.

_ Level of education among the youth is directly related to their parents’ education. Nearly 54 per cent of the professional degree holders, 38 per cent of postgraduates and 30 per cent graduates have parents with ‘above matric’ qualification. Most thinly educated youth come from parents who have not completed their school education.

_ The educational achievement of literate youth is also closely linked to the major source of household income. The majority of the ‘graduate and above’ youths belong to regular salary/wage-dependent households. The youth with meager education belong to families engaged as labour(42%).

_ The occupation of parents does influence the education level of the youth. About 71 per cent of youth with professional degrees and 59 per cent of the postgraduates have salaried parents or those self-employed in non-agriculture, while the proportion of the highly-educated with labourer-parents is very small (9-13%).

_ Of all the literate youth, about 10 per cent (6% rural,16% urban) are graduate and above while an overwhelmingly large 76 per cent (82% rural, 68% urban) are ‘matriculates or below’.

_ About 59 per cent of the youth with graduate degrees and 69 per cent with postgraduate degrees reside in towns and cities. The share is as high as 86 per cent when the youth have professional degrees.

_ About 32 per cent of the literate youth are students and 20 per cent are engaged in ‘unpaid housework’; only 12 per cent are salaried employees.

_ Of the total literate youth in the country, the major portion (77.8 million) comes from the south Indian states constituting about 23 per cent, while another 21per cent come from central Indian states.

_ About 77 per cent of the literate youth population is interested in music & films, 72 per cent in news & current affairs, 59 per cent in religious and spiritual topics, 35 per cent in science and technology and 34 per cent in environmental pollution. More males than females are interested in news and politics, but the reverse is the case with fashion and religious and spiritual topics.

_ Television remains the most popular source of information for the youth followed by newspapers. However, while 54 per cent of the youth view television for entertainment and 22 per cent for news and current affairs, about 63 per cent read newspapers to gather news and information on current event and only 10 per cent reading for entertainment.

_ Watching TV is the most preferred leisure activity, followed by newspaper reading. In fact, a literate youth spends on an average 98 minutes daily viewing TV, 32 minutes on newspaper reading, 44 minutes reading magazines, 70 minutes surfing the net, and 61 minutes per day listening to the radio.

_ About 24 per cent of households have newspaper subscription (15% rural, 39% urban) and 8 per cent (5% rural, 12% urban) magazine subscription. Four out of every seven households of ‘graduate and above’ youth and three out of every

eight urban households have newspaper subscription. _ Two out of every eight households of ‘graduate and above’ youth, one out of every eight households of ‘higher

secondary’ passed, and one out of every 15 households of ‘primary’ passed have magazine subscription. _ More girls than boys show interest in reading books during leisure time but more boys than girls read newspapers.

Readership of books, newspapers and magazines also increases with rising level of education but decreases with increasing age. The proportion of those reading books during leisure time declines with increasing age groups.

_ Hindi, with 38.5 per cent followed by Marathi (10.5%) and Tamil (9%) have emerged as the three most preferred languages for newspaper readers.

_ The literate youth had a higher level of confidence in newspapers than TV. However, about 75 per cent of Internet users expressed confidence in the Internet.

_ Almost 65 per cent of the youth households in India own TV, 54 per cent own mobile phones, 27 per cent own radio and 5 per cent have own computers at home. About 86 per cent of the urban households own TV as against 52 per cent in the case of rural households.

_ The internet is accessed by 3.7 per cent of the youth (7.7% urban, 1.3% rural), for e-mails and chatting in more than half of the cases. It is used for entertainment in 14 per cent of the time, for reading books online in 4 per cent of the cases and also to search for new book titles in 1.2 per cent of the cases. It is accessed at Internet cafes in 46 per cent of the cases, at home in 23 per cent, and at the workplace in 13 per cent.

_ Of the 83 million total youth readers (25% of the youth population), about 39 million (47%) are urban and 44 million (53%) are rural; 53 per cent of the literate youth are males; frequency of readers amongst males and females is 24 and 27 per cent respectively; frequency of readers in rural and urban segments is 21 and 31 per cent respectively.

_ With 58 per cent of the readers, the level of education attained is matriculation or below, only 42 per cent are above matriculation.

_ The southern region has 24 per cent youth readers, followed by the eastern and western regions, both having nearly 22 per cent readers, the central region(12%), the northern region(13%) and the north-eastern belt having the least share of youth readers(7%).

_ About 43 per cent of Christian and 25 per cent of Hindu youth read leisure books. Readership among the Sikh youth is 13 per cent. The Hindu readers constitute about 82 per cent of the total readers as against 12 per cent share of Muslims.

_ Youth belonging to joint families and even those staying in hostels or other places of accommodation read more than those staying in nuclear families.

_ Readership is closely liked to parents’ level of education. While 49 per cent of youth with ‘graduate and above’ parents and 39 per cent with ‘higher-secondary’ parents read leisure books, it is only 17 per cent among youth with illiterate parents. However, youth with ‘graduate and above’ parents form only 12 per cent of the total readers as against 47 per cent in case of youth with primary-passed or illiterate parents.

_ Readership is also significantly higher among youth with salaried (30%), retired (39%) parents compared to youth with agriculturist or labourer parents (22%). While 40 per cent of readers have salaried parents, only 32 per cent have agriculturist or labourer parents. _ About 25 per cent of literate youth read books for pleasure, relaxation and knowledge enhancement; more females (27%) read leisure books than males (24%). _ The reading habit is more among the younger generation compared to elder youth since many youth in higher age groups are likely to be involved with other activities to sustain their families. Readership also declines towards lower levels of education.

Hindi is the most preferred language for leisure reading (33.4%) followed by Marathi (13.2%), Bengali (7.7%) and English (5.3%). _

Youth readers prefer to read leisure books mostly on holidays (36%) while only about 4 per cent read on working days; 75 per cent read books ‘at least once a week’, while 26.4 per cent read ‘daily’; about 88 per centread at ‘home’, only a miniscule reading in their schools/colleges or libraries. _

There was a clear association between books possessed by a youth and her or his being a reader or nonreader. _ Fiction is the most preferred genre among the youth (42%) followed by non-fiction (24%). Three most preferred genres of fiction books are fantasy, comics and classics and the least preferred are romance and graphic novels. Most preferred non-fiction books are religious books and biographies/ autobiographies.

_ About 39 per cent youth are members of public libraries, 46.2 per cent of school/college libraries, and 14.7 per cent of other libraries, which include private institutions as well. _ Surprisingly, only 3 per cent of literate youth visited book promotion events ‘every year’; a staggering 85 per cent have never visited these events. There was a clear positive association between readership status and visits to book promotion events. _

The four most important reasons for not reading enough are ‘lack of interest in reading’, ‘lack of time to read’, ‘advent of new channels of information’ and ‘lack of availability of books at affordable prices’. _ Asked how they got information about books, 38 per cent of the youth said that they obtained it from friends/family while 20 per cent said that they got the information from bookshops, and 14 per cent relied on libraries. _ About the modes of procurement of books, 56 per cent talked of buying books and 19 per cent youth liked to borrow from friends. _ While buying leisure books price, subject, and author profile are the three most important factors taken into consideration by youth readers. _

Asked to indicate the purpose of reading from a list given, 46 per cent chose ‘knowledge enhancement’ and 19-20 per cent each said that they read for ‘pleasure’ and ‘relaxation’. _To the query, ‘Do you think that you read enough’ 51 per cent of the youth readers replied in the affirmative, 35 per cent said they did not read enough but would like to read more.

_ Schools have emerged as the hotbed of readership development. About 59 per cent of the youth who had a reading habit said they were initiated into reading in their school, while about 20 per cent learned it from their parents.

_ Asked whether their teachers encouraged them to read, 50 per cent of the readers and 19 per cent of the non-readers answered in the affirmative as against the overall percentage of teacher encouragement (27%).

_ Almost 83 per cent of the youth with a reading habit found the reading hour in their schools interesting, while 65 per cent of the non-readers found it interesting.

_ In the case of readers, parents’ reading interest and involvement was comparatively more than that in the case of non-readers.

_ About 28 per cent of the youth lend leisure books to friends and family members, 12 per cent have presented gifts to others while another 12 per cent received gifts.

_ Peer influence on the reading habit was clearly visible when 74 per cent of the readers reported that their peers had interest in reading, while only 34 per cent of the non-readers did so.

_ The majority of the youth agreed that students who read books beyond their syllabus become more knowledgeable and successful. About 75 per cent agreed that reading is more important than watching TV or surfing the net. Nearly 77 per cent also agreed that books were the most suitable medium for knowledge transmission.

_ About half the respondent youth shared the perception that the reading habit was declining. Almost 48 per cent found the advent of the Internet and electronic media as the most important reason for the declining trend in reading.

_ Three suggestions for promoting reading habit that found the maximum support of the youth are motivation and encouragement, compulsory leisure reading in schools, and easy access to libraries, with motivation and encouragement being supported by the maximum number of youth.

_ Although a larger proportion (61%) of the literate youth are satisfied with their overall achievement, the percentage of those not satisfied (34%) is still too large to merit closer observation. There was a distinct difference in the satisfaction levels of those who had the reading habit (70%) and non-readers (58%).

_ Financial difficulties, household responsibilities, and parents/husband not permitting emerged as the paramount reasons for the youth not pursuing higher education.

_ More youth were aware about NREGA and SSA — two programmes directly linked to livelihood and education, while awareness about RTI was very low.

_ Newspapers/magazines and television emerged as the main sources of information about the development programmes.

_ About 67 per cent of the literate youth agreed with reservation for women in the Parliament and local government.

_ While an overwhelming proportion (76%) of the literate youth said they were religious, almost 48 per cent believed that good luck is more important than hard work for success with an equal percentage in urban and rural areas.

_ About 75 per cent literate youth evinced some amount of interest in science-25 per cent being very much interested in science and 50 per cent being fairly interested.

_ The majority of the urban youth and more males agreed that global warming, biodiversity and environmental pollution were serious issues. _ About 40% of the literate youth felt that publishing houses have a ‘very important’ role to play in society, and as such an almost equal per cent (39%) of them also perceived a ‘very important’ role for the editors in these publishing houses.