STATEMENT BY SHAILENDRA GALA, DIRECTOR, NAVNEET EDUCATION LIMITED

It has come to our notice that one of the stories in one of our books has content which is not appropriate for children. Navneet is a responsible publishing house and we do not support animal cruelty of any sort. We have published thousands of books and stories for more than 50 years, where empathy and caring are the central themes, and which attempt to inculcate a feeling of compassion among children. The story in question has unfortunately slipped through the cracks.

Animal welfare has been the focus, in fact, of our community efforts for decades. We have supported 500 animal shelters with 3,00,000 animals in Gujarat and Maharashtra where their health, nutrition and hygienic living conditions are taken care of.

Navneet deeply regrets publishing this story in question and is recalling all of its copies from the market immediately*. In addition, we are ensuring that such content never slips through again.

• We are putting together a panel of respected academicians and counsellors to review our existing content and to frame better guidelines for what will be produced in the future.
• We are visiting leading schools to consult with principals and teachers to understand their content needs and to make the changes, as required.
• We are also working towards associating with animal care NGOs to create a series of animal care and empathy based books.

*Given below are: