3 Sisters Are Bringing the Joy of Reading to 8000 Children Across India’s Tribal & Coastal Belts

On a Tuesday morning inside a free school run by a non-profit in the tribal belt of Madhya Pradesh, a teacher paused midway through a story and looked around her classroom in disbelief.

Thirty children who usually struggled to sit still were listening with complete attention.

Not one child was fidgeting. Nobody was trying to leave the room. The classroom, usually noisy and distracted, had fallen into what the teacher would later describe as “pin-drop silence”.

For her, the moment felt extraordinary because she remembered what the same children had been like a year earlier.

“When Turning Pages Foundation first came, some children threw books around,” she recalls. “Some walked out. They were not interested at all. But now they wait for story sessions.”

The transformation is part of a larger reading movement quietly unfolding across India through Turning Pages Foundation, a non-profit that works with a mix of government, government-aided, free schools and low-income schools that aid underserved communities to build strong reading habits among children from Classes 1 to 5.

Founded by sisters Bunty and Madhuri Pai, and their first cousin Nayana Pai, the organisation works across 12 active schools in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Madhya Pradesh. 

Through classroom libraries, read-aloud sessions, teacher training, and school-wide reading programmes, it currently reaches nearly 8,000 students and 150 teachers. Over the last few years, the foundation has sourced and circulated close to 15,000 books across schools that often had little or no access to children’s literature before the programme began.

But for the founders, the work is not just about books.

It is about changing children’s emotional relationship with reading.

Why the reading crisis in India runs deeper than marks

Across India, concerns around foundational literacy have become increasingly urgent. Under the Government of India’s NIPUN Bharat mission, educators and policymakers have repeatedly pointed to a troubling reality: millions of children are progressing through school without developing basic reading skills.

Several national assessments have shown that many Grade 5 students still struggle to comfortably read Grade 2-level text.

For Turning Pages Foundation, however, the issue is not merely academic.

The founders believe many children disengage from reading long before they are officially identified as “weak readers”. By the time books enter their lives through exams, correction, and pressure, reading has already become associated with anxiety rather than pleasure.

“Children have an innate desire to read and listen to stories,” says Madhuri Pai, co-founder of the organisation and an IIM Bangalore graduate who spent 25 years in business management before moving into education. “The problem is that we often turn reading into a forced activity instead of an enjoyable one.”

That belief now sits at the centre of the foundation’s work.

Rather than focusing narrowly on test performance, the organisation works to build what it calls a “whole-school reading culture”, where books become part of everyday life inside classrooms, corridors, and homes.

How three sisters built Turning Pages Foundation

The idea for Turning Pages Foundation emerged from the sisters’ own childhood in Mangaluru, where books were deeply woven into family life.

“Our best memories growing up involved books,” says Bunty Pai. “Reading was never treated like homework in our house. It was associated with comfort, joy, and conversation.”

Though the sisters eventually entered different professions, books remained a constant thread.

Bunty worked as a journalist before spending years in the education non-profit sector, where she developed story-based learning programmes. 

Madhuri built a long corporate career while running neighbourhood book clubs for children in her spare time. Nayana Pai worked in software engineering before motherhood pushed her to rethink her career entirely.

“When my son entered Class 1, I started doing phonics activities at home and reading sessions for children nearby,” Nayana says. “I realised how much children responded when stories were made enjoyable.”

In 2017, she piloted a structured reading programme inside a Mumbai school with Class 3 students. The response convinced the sisters that the model needed to grow.

By 2020, all three had come together to formally launch the Turning Pages Foundation. Ironically, the organisation was born just as the COVID-19 lockdown began.

“I had gone to Pune and was supposed to return on March 24,” Bunty recalls. “Then suddenly the lockdown was announced and we couldn’t meet.”

Even during the uncertainty of the pandemic, the sisters continued refining their curriculum, teacher training models, and classroom methodology through online interactions.

“We were talking about physical books and reading culture at a time when the whole world had shifted online,” Bunty says with a laugh. “But we believed even more strongly then that children needed stories.”

What the programme looks like inside schools

Turning Pages Foundation does not simply donate books to schools and move on.

Before beginning work at any school, the organisation conducts a detailed audit that assesses physical infrastructure, classroom spaces, existing book collections, family demographics, and reading habits among children.

Schools that join the programme commit to structural changes within the timetable itself.

Every participating school introduces a daily 20 to 30-minute DEAR period, which stands for Drop Everything And Read. Children also receive a weekly double period dedicated entirely to joyful reading experiences rather than textbook instruction. In addition, teachers receive 40 minutes every week for mentoring and coaching support.

“You cannot create a reading culture by just placing books in classrooms,” Madhuri says. “The ecosystem matters.”

The reading sessions themselves are intentionally simple.

Teachers read aloud from physical books while encouraging children to respond freely to stories through conversation, imagination, drawing, drama, and discussion. Children are invited to predict endings, question character choices, and connect stories to their own lives.

“If the story did not have a proper ending, students would create their own,” says Amalorpavamary, a teacher at HOPE School in Bengaluru who has worked with the programme for three years. “Stories became alive for them.”

She remembers reading a story about a blind boy who navigated spaces by counting his steps. After the session, students began counting distances everywhere, from classrooms to school gates and even inside their homes.

“They wanted to understand what that boy experienced,” she says.

The change in classroom participation has surprised even experienced educators.

“Earlier, reading sessions meant the teacher spoke, and students listened quietly,” Amalorpavamary explains. “Now they ask questions constantly. They ask whether stories are real, why characters behaved a certain way, and what they would have done differently.”

One child once walked to the front of the class holding a storybook and confidently declared, “Okay, I’m the teacher now.”

Why teachers are at the centre of the model

A key part of Turning Pages Foundation’s approach is that teachers themselves drive the programme.

Instead of relying on external volunteers, the organisation invests heavily in teacher training so schools can sustain reading culture independently over time.

“Teachers are already under enormous pressure,” says mentor Veda Venkatesh, who supports schools in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. “Our job is to make storytelling feel manageable and joyful rather than like another burden.”

The organisation conducts a three-day intensive teacher training programme every year.

The first day reconnects teachers with their own childhood experiences of stories and imagination. The second day introduces teachers to read-aloud techniques and classroom practices. The third day trains teachers in performance techniques such as pacing, voice modulation, classroom movement, and discussion facilitation.

“They taught us how to hold books properly so children could see the illustrations clearly,” Amalorpavamary says. “They also taught us how to use pauses, voice, and movement to make stories engaging.”

Teachers are additionally trained to create emotionally safe discussion spaces where children feel comfortable expressing opinions without fear of being judged.

For many educators, this approach feels radically different from traditional classroom instruction.

At schools where the programme has run consistently, teachers themselves have begun developing stronger reading habits.

“At one school, teachers started asking for book recommendations for their own reading,” says mentor Pallavi Mallya. “That was a very important shift because children notice when adults genuinely enjoy books.”

How libraries are transforming schools

At SSVM Hippocampus School near Kanakapura in Karnataka, principal Shobha K R remembers how limited the school’s reading environment once was.

“We had only twelve books earlier,” she says.

Today, the school has nearly 3,000 books distributed across classroom libraries in English and Kannada. It also conducts two 40-minute reading sessions every week alongside its daily DEAR period.

What has surprised Shobha most is how reading has gradually become embedded in the school’s larger culture.

“Every morning, the entire school reads,” she says. “Teachers read, the principal reads, support staff read, even security guards read. It has become normal for everyone.”

Students from higher grades who are technically outside the programme have begun asking why they cannot participate in storytelling sessions, too. Children now routinely borrow books to take home.

“Reading is my favourite time,” says Mishika, a Class 3 student from Mumbai. “Every day we get twenty minutes, and I wait for it.”

Another student admits, “I usually fall asleep during classes, but I pay lots of attention during storytelling sessions because my ma’am makes them fun.”

Reaching children often left behind by classrooms

Some of the programme’s strongest impacts have emerged among children who struggle within conventional classroom systems.

Veda remembers a child with learning disabilities at a Karnataka school who could not independently read text but still formed a deep attachment to one particular storybook.

“He cannot read the words fluently,” she says. “But he remembers the story completely and explains why it is his favourite.”

That same child later participated confidently in a classroom skit during the annual showcase.

In another school, a child with autism who found it difficult to remain engaged during regular lessons became calm and attentive during storytelling sessions.

The programme is deliberately designed to allow participation beyond reading ability itself. Children can engage through oral narration, drawing, observation, discussion, and dramatisation.

“Our programme is designed not to exclude anyone,” Veda explains.

How reading habits are reaching homes 

The impact of the programme often extends far beyond classrooms.

At JES School in Mumbai, Kankuben, the mother of a Class 3 student named Mishika, says books have transformed conversations at home.

“She comes home with excitement and tells us every story,” Kankuben says. “Even during summer vacations, she misses reading in school.”

Kankuben describes herself as someone with limited literacy in Hindi and English. Yet she says she trusts her daughter completely when it comes to reading.

Another parent, Shabnam, says her son Arfaan now regularly narrates stories from school at home.

In several schools, parents who did not grow up with books themselves have started attending read-aloud sessions. One mother later told teachers that participating in a storytelling activity reminded her of her own childhood for the first time in decades.

“That stayed with me,” Bunty says. “Then you realise this is not only about literacy. It is also about memory, affection, and belonging.”

Measuring impact beyond marks

Turning Pages Foundation is careful about how it evaluates impact. The organisation conducts baseline and endline surveys at schools to assess shifts in reading engagement, participation, and confidence. 

But unlike many education programmes, its primary indicators are not exam marks alone.

Instead, teachers observe whether children voluntarily pick up books, whether they can name favourite stories and explain why they liked them, whether they discuss books with friends and family, and whether classroom participation improves over time.

“Reading culture is not an exact science,” Bunty says. “But you can clearly see when children begin emotionally connecting with books.”

Mentors also track behavioural indicators that reveal deeper engagement.

Some children finish lunch quickly so they can spend extra time in reading corners. Others begin borrowing books regularly or narrating stories at home. Teachers report stronger classroom discussions and increased curiosity among students who were previously disengaged.

For the founders, these changes matter because they indicate that reading is becoming self-driven rather than externally imposed.

Building a culture that survives beyond the foundation

One of the core goals of Turning Pages Foundation is sustainability.

The organisation does not want schools to remain permanently dependent on external intervention. Instead, it works toward helping schools build reading ecosystems that continue functioning independently.

That is why teacher ownership remains central to the programme.

“We want schools to eventually say, ‘This is how we function now,’” Bunty explains. “Not because Turning Pages is present, but because reading has become part of the culture.”

Today, across government-aided schools, tribal communities, low-income classrooms, and coastal villages, children who once saw books as intimidating are beginning to experience them differently.

They are waiting for storytelling sessions. Borrowing books voluntarily. Asking questions. Creating alternate endings. Reading at home during vacations.

And in classrooms where silence once came only from fear or disinterest, teachers are now witnessing something they rarely expected to see. Children listen because they genuinely want to.

All images courtesy of the Turning Pages Foundation

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: thebetterindia.com