Women In Focus At Delhi's World Book Fair

Every year, Delhi hosts the World Book Fair, arguably the biggest book fair in the country. It brings together authors, readers and bookworms from around the world at one place for conversations over books. While every year, there is a theme attached to the book fair, this year the 44^th edition of the grand book fair’s theme has got us all excited as it is based on writings by women and on women.

Shri Baldeo Bhai Sharma, Chairman, National Book Trust (NBT), said, “This year, ‘Manushi’ is the theme of the fair which will focus on writings on and by women; and will exhibit the rich tradition of women's writing from ancient times till present." He added that Shri Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of Human Resource Development, will inaugurate the Theme Pavilion on January 10.

The book fair that began today at Pragati Maidan will go on till 15^th January. It was inaugurated by Mahendra Nath Pandey, MoS for Human Resource Development (Higher Education).

However, the theme inauguration ceremony on the 10^th will have eminent Odia writer and Jnanpith awardee, Pratibha Ray, as the guest of honour and Tomasz Kozlowski, Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union (EU) to India as the Special Guest.

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“There has been the tradition of women writers as well as scholars since ancient times in India. Many of them have set examples of morality through their literary works and have played a vital role in promoting modern thoughts. Therefore, we wanted to provide a special space to them at the fair,” Sharma told Business Standard.

There will be books from across genres like science, children’s stories, short stories, human behaviour, thriller, fiction, non-fiction etc by both male and female writers. The centre of attraction will be panels on women-oriented issues. Some of the personalities who will present discussions will be Blossom Kocchar of Aromatherapy, actor Asha Parekh and celebrity Maria Goretti.

Picture credit- Maps of India