INSTITUE OF MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH

TECHNOLOGY
REPORT ON - INDIAN YOUTH
READERSHIP TRENDS

SUBMITTED TO - PROF IRAM AHMED
SUBMITTED BY- SUHANEE SHOME
2
nd
Sem (PGDM)
ACADEMIC YEAR-(2010-
2012)

DATE-26-0-2011
E!ECUTI"E SUMMARY
There is now growing acceptance of the fact that a countrys social and
economic progress greatly depends on its people having access to the vast
expanse of knowledge provided by the printed word. This is all the more
relevant to a country like India where the youth constitute a sizeable portion
of its total population .Economic planners in India have always focused on its
vital constituency. The National youth olicy! "##$ reiterated the
commitment of the entire nation to the composite and all%round
development of the young sons and daughter of India. In other words! youth
power can be harnessed for the countrys development only by providing
young Indian with the right dose of education! motivation and exposure to
the outside world. In todays world uneducated and malnourished workers
&nd little place in productive employment.
It is found that 'eveloped countries undertake studies on regular basis to
assess the readership status and follow the reading habits among their
youth. (owever! in 'eveloping countries like India! barring a few micro%level
studies! no systematic investigation! at national level! has been conducted to
assess the general readership status! reading habits and preference among
the youth! and their dependence on various development indicators. It was
against this backdrop that the National )ook Trust! India! a premier national
body for book publishing and promotion functioning under the *inistry of
human +esource 'evelopment! government of India! approached the
National ,ouncil of -pplied Economic +esearch .N,-E+/ to undertake the
National 0outh readership 1urvey .N0+1%"##2/ to generate data for the
present investigation.
N0+1%"##2 covered various aspects pertaining to reading habits and
readership development among youth in a fairly detailed manner. The
demographic pro&le of Indian youth! according to sex! age. 3evel
education! occupation and other socio%economic characteristics has been
prepared. (ow often! how much and what is the Indian youth reading4 5or
answering this 6uestion the N#$%&n#' B&&( T)*+$ (NBT) in India undertook
a readership survey among the youth of the country .The survey was
conducted by the N#$%&n#' C&*n,%' &- A..'%ed E,&n&m%, Re+e#),/ in
"##2.-ccording to )ipin ,handra! ,hairman of N)T!7 8e often say that
youngsters these days 9ust dont read much. In order to really assess the
situation ! we are conducting a national readership survey amongst the
youth to see how much they read and what do they read7.
METHODOLOGY
It is essential to apply the right methodology to make a research successful.Most of the
researchers have adopted the survey methodology for these kinds of researches comprehensive
results can be achieved through a survey. Although, conducting surveys are not an easy task, but
the results are instant and easy to analyze. Target audiences are given a multiple choice questions
hich makes it easier for them to choose from. !urveys can give you a lot of data and it ill
assure you that you have a verifiable resources. It provides you direct knoledge of peoples
opinions and it can give you good data for your analysis.
"efinitely the most important aspect in the process of survey is the designing of questions that
should measure the opinions, e#periences and behaviors of the public. Ambiguous and confusing
or for that matter bias questions simply distracts the audience. Adopting careful measures in
designing a questionnaire gives a fair chance in achieving the results. $rocedure in designing a
questionnaire requires a thorough literature revie and is evolved after many deliberations.
A questionnaire as designed for the youth to fill in. The ob%ective of the research as to find
out if Indian youth are more into reading nespaper or atching T& and hich medium do they
choose to get nes details' Therefore hen creating questionnaire questions ere placed so that
it can find out the frequency at hich the Indian youth use these medium and hich language
they prefer. In this survey it as also tried to find out the affect of T& nes channels on
nespaper readership.
The survey aimed at preparing a detailed demographic profile of the Indian youth ()*+*, years-
according to se#, age, level of education, occupation and other socio+economic characteristics. It
as also e#pected to e#plore the usage pattern of various information sources, in the print and
electronic media in terms of accessibility, frequency, time spent, place of e#posure etc. It as an
attempt to understand the readership status, reading habits and preferences of the Indian youth.
According to the survey.ith a sample of over *,)),/*) literate youth (),01,01) rural and
1,02,/)0 urban- covering /*1 villages in 103 districts as rural and 3,* urban blocks in )22 tons
as urban.is a first+of+its+kind e#ercise aimed at providing an ob%ective understanding of the
media consumption, reading habits and preferences of literate Indian youth.
F%nd%n0+
4olloing are some of the facts and figures of our survey on Indian 5outh 6eadership Trends.
)."uring the survey it is found that in the year 1002 the Indian 5outh population as estimated
to be /,2 million.
1.

4rom the pie diagram it is found that *78 of the total Indian population falls under the youth
category hich is in beteen )*+*, years.
*.
9f the countrys total youth population of /,2 million, a large proportion, over /)8, is in the
older 1,+*, age group, folloed by teenagers (*:.38- ith the rest in the 10+1/ age (11.)8-.
/.
4rom the survey it is found that 3*8 of the Indian total population is literate i.e *** million.
,.
Indias youth population gre at over 1.8 to /,2 million in 1002 from *20 million in the 100)
census, hile the literate youth population gre at a more rapid 1./28 to *** million from
*1/million.
:.

4rom the pie diagram e can understood that the percentage of ;iterate Indian 5outh in the
6ural Areas is *3.28 and in <rban Areas is :1.)08 . =roth as faster in urban India (*.),8 a
year- than in rural India (1.))8-
3.
4rom our survey it as found that the percentage of Indian literate youth is highest among
>indus.
7.
Almost
three+fourths
(3*8- of
literate youth
in the
country are
from
schedule
castes
(11.38-,
schedule
tribes (2.78- and other backard classes (/0.*8-, according to the survey. ?urrently, in our
study it as found that caste+based reservation in educational institutes stands at ),8 for !?s,
3.,8 for !Ts and 138 for 9@?s.
2.
In our study it as found alarming that only 2.:8 of the total Indian 5outh are graduates.
)0.
Percentage of Preferred Activities by the Indian Youth
Television emerges as the biggest media, ith over 338 of the *** million literate, or 1,2
million, youth e#posed to it. Aespapers too are able to maintain their dominance, ith over half
(,*8- of all literate youth, or )33 million, e#posed to them. @ut in terms of preferred media for
nes B current affairs, nespapers in hands don, ith around to+thirds (:*./8- selecting
them compared ith %ust a third (11.18- for television.
)).
Above is the distribution of the 5outh interested in the various topics ,according to the survey.
)1.
4rom the survey it as found that Television emerges the biggest engager, ith average time
spent a day at over 23 minutes, ne#t Aespaper, then 6adio , magazines and at last Internet.
Though the Internet reaches feer than /8 of all youth (78 in urban areas-, time spent ith the
medium is proportionately higher at over an hour a day (30 minutes-, reflecting the mediums
stickiness.
RECOMMENDATION
=oing through the survey results, I came across something interesting. Chen asked by the
survey, about the motivation behind reading leisure books, it is seen that only )7.78 ere
encouraged by their parents. If our nation plan to make all youths in the age group of ),+1,
active readers by 101,, then parents have to be made aare of the benefits of reading. Moreover,
use of the internet as a source of information remains abysmally poor in India.
As e kno that Aespaper is not remaining the source of information.Its no more meant for
nes only.Aespaper became the versatile product hich can be marketed as the 4M?=
product.6eader must look toards Aespaper as a Newsfotenent.
It is an effective media than any other media.!o at last from the survey it is understood that the
Indian 5outh have less reading habits and so in order to increase their reading habit they should
read more and more Aespaper, Magazines, %ournals etc