– Ronita Torcato

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) an autonomous organisation of the Ministry of Education, has registered a record 29 FIRs against printers, warehouse owners, and retailers of pirated NCERT textbooks following the seizure of more than 5 lakh pirated copies and printing paper and machinery worth more than Rs. 20 crore.

Piracy of textbooks is a cognizable offence under the Copyright Act, 1957, and further investigations are underway to identify the masterminds behind the manufacture, distribution and sale of pirated textbooks.

To curb the menace of pirated textbooks, which not only cause revenue loss to NCERT and the Government of India but are also a health hazard for school children on account of the poor paper and ink quality, NCERT has initiated the following steps:

1. Improvement in the quality of paper and printing of textbooks

2. Timebound printing of textbooks and their availability in adequate numbers in the market

3 Online sale of NCERT textbooks on major e-commerce platforms at MRP without delivery charges

4 Introduction of a technology-based anti-piracy solution developed by IIT Kanpur in NCERT textbooks. This solution has been piloted on 10 lakh copies of one title and will be scaled up to all titles in the next academic year, replacing the old watermarked paper, which is easily copied by pirates.

Students, teachers and parents are requested to kindly bring to the notice of NCERT any instance of the sale of pirated NCERT textbooks at [email protected].

Also read: FIR against Bengaluru school for illegal transfer of students to govt schools