Material Coordinator of Pratham, Sugata Sen Pillai said the NGO had launched a Padho Bharat Abhiyan about two years ago and had entered into a collaboration with BEPC for bringing out the tabloid for the first time in India.

''Our aim is to improve problem-solving skills among children through easy and interesting methods of teaching. The graphics and cartoons in the tabloid interest them and thus the pace of learning is enhanced,'' she said.

Pillai said the regular newspapers did not not carry sufficient material to cater to the needs of children but Bachpan brought to them knowledge of language, science and mathematics that was easy to understand.

After the success of Bachpan, the BEPC is actively considering the launch of another tabloid to be named Bodh, independently.

We are negotiating the modalities with Hindi daily Dainik Jagran to bring it out, Pandey said.

The BEPC official said the council proposed to cover school in ten districts Purnia, Katihar, Supaul, Darbhanga, Madhubani, East Champaran, West Champaran, Nalanda, Lakhisarai and Sheikhpura.

I am confident that the new tabloid will improve reading habits among children studying between class I and V, he said.

Like Bachpan, Bodh will also be a fortnightly and would be distributed among the students in 20, 000 schools in the ten districts entailing a cost of Rs ten lakh per month.