300M initiative hopes to target children who cannot read at grade level

A new 300M library has already been opened in Delhi's Uttam Nagar

There are 300 million children in elementary school in India. Of these, 150 million cannot read. “Suppose we say that 150 million (children who can read) will help the 150 million (in the age group of 5-10) who cannot, we would have made a difference,” says Geeta Dharmarajan, 69-year-old founder of Katha, a Delhi-based nonprofit organisation that has been educating children in slums and publishing children’s books since 1988. 

That is the thought behind Katha’s 300M initiative, which is founded on the belief that children being unable to read cannot be only the government’s business. “It is everybody’s business,” argues