TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Today, about hundreds of people suddenly read a book together in a series of commuter line train or electric train (KRL) of Jabodetabek route of Kota Station to the University of Indonesia (UI) Station. They sit or stand in every corner of the carriage along with other passengers as they focus on reading their respective books.
Apparently, they are members and volunteers from various reading communities in Indonesia, among them the Taman Baca Innovator Foundation, Indoreadgram, and Booktube ID.
"This is to make reading into a cultural event on the train," said Ayom, 28, a member of the ID Booktube community, when met on the train en route from Kota Station to Universitas Indonesia Station on Sunday, April 22.
The campaign called KeReadTa held in the event of World Book Day on 23 April every year. Three communities invited PT Kereta Commuter Indonesia to cooperate to deliver a campaign of reading activities on the train.
A total of 400 people from the community members and volunteers are scheduled to participate in the activity. The campaigns are conducted inside the trains that will stop at the University of Indonesia Station. There, the campaign continued with a talk show containing a number of classes, including literacy classes, blog-writing classes, to journalism classes.
Ayom said the campaign is pure to increase the reading interest in Indonesia. From the 2017 data, he said, reading interest rate is still at the level of 0.001.
"That is, from 1,000 people Indonesia, there is only one person who has interest in reading," he said.
Vice President Corporate Communications of PT Kereta Commuter Indonesia Eva Chairunisa said the campaign is also in line with the education program of Rumah Baca (Reading House) Si Karel belonging to the KRL operator company. The house is being built in Tenjo, Bogor District.
"Later the books collected in this campaign will be donated to there [Rumah Baca]," said Eva.
FAJAR PEBRIANTO
