The cornerstone of education remains to be a good textbook. With it you can gather all the information and knowledge you need to move forward in your educational journey. However, as you progress in your journey, you'll find that prescribed books get more and more expensive. While some students can afford to invest that money in these books, the rest of the crowd must resort to spending hours in the library taking notes or photocopies or depend heavily on the notes taken during lectures. Now, I'm pretty sure this is the state of affairs for most students, especially those coming for a middle-class or lower-class background.
If this is you, fret no more 'cause there is a Bengaluru-based start-up called Bukroot that allows you access to all these textbooks on a rental basis. Prabhanjan R, an engineer by profession and the founder of Bukroot, says, "I created this app called Bukroot because I wanted to help lower and middle-class students who are pursuing their degrees. Unfortunately, due to the high prices, they can't afford to buy the textbooks they require. When I was a student, I remember spending more than `2,000 every year on textbooks - that's a lot for some of us. And when we went to the library, we were often not allowed to check the books out and take them home. So, renting textbooks instead will help you save money that you can use for the future."
Started in January 2020, Bukroot has received positive responses from college students. He explains, "We bought textbooks from publishers in large quantities. It includes textbooks for all the semesters of BSc, BCA, BCom, BA, all streams of Engineering and so on. We have a collection of over 2,000 textbooks including those by famous authors that are most often referred to by students." So, how can one access these textbooks? "One can download the Bukroot app and select whether they would like to borrow books or buy second-hand books. To borrow books, a one-time security deposit is collected through the app, the amount depends on the plan you choose - two books plan, four books plan or six books plan - which determines how many books you can borrow per semester. Once the student closes their membership, we ensure that their deposit is returned," explains Prabhanjan.
Since these textbooks are passed on from one student to the next, Prabhanjan avers that it is the students' responsibility to ensure that the books do not get damaged. "They must ensure that they don't use markers or scribble or tear pages. When they return the textbooks, we check them before accepting them," says Prabhanjan whose Bukroot service is currently limited to Bengaluru and surrounding rural areas but he hopes to expand his business across Karnataka someday.
So what are they doing now during the lockdown? Prabhanjan and his friends are producing online videos for Math, Engineering subjects and other subjects, and will upload them on YouTube and their platform soon. He says, "Students will like these videos through which we are trying to teach the basic concepts required in Math taught in engineering classes. We sincerely hope that the pandemic ends soon and normalcy resumes."
You can download this Bukroot app on Google Playstore
