Based on a report from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, Indonesia’s literacy culture score is 57.4 points in 2022. This value was recorded as an increase of 5.7% compared to the previous year which was 54.29 points. Even though this percentage has increased, the figure is not good enough to create quality human resources.
To increase people’s interest in reading, many literacy activists are endlessly inviting Indonesian people to get closer and love literacy. One of them is a literacy activist from North Sumatra, Eka Dalanta Tarigan.
Eka Dalanta, an alumnus of the Indonesian Literature Department, Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) who is a literacy activist and active in the field of literature. Because of her love of literature, she and 4 other writers founded a community called Ngobrol Buku.
Ngobrol Buku is a community in the city of Medan, North Sumatra which was founded with the determination to change the stigma that thinks literature is difficult to understand and boring. The topics discussed are also presented in an interesting and non-monotonous way so that the audience has a deeper interest in books and literature.
The establishment of this community is useful for increasing public awareness to be more interested in literacy and literature. “Talking about literature is important, because it will make us individuals who have a sense of empathy and an attitude that humanizes other humans well,” said Eka.
She added, “The aim of creating this community is also to introduce the richness of Indonesian literature to a wide audience, especially young people, therefore we use social media platforms such as Instagram”.
This community, as a forum for discussions related to literature and literacy, has also been regularly carrying out activities since May 2020. These activities are carried out in a hybrid manner, namely online every Friday at 20.00 P.M in Indonesia time via live Instagram @ngobrol.buku and offline once a month in public spaces so that it can attract the attention of more people.
As an effort to bring literature closer to society, it is hoped that this community will grow bigger, gain recognition from many circles and be able to produce many young generations of literature lovers and spread the beauty of Indonesian literature worldwide. In this way, the literacy rate in Indonesia, especially in the city of Medan is increasing.