https://reasonstobecheerful.world/rural-india-community-libraries/
"Every morning, Amit Sonkar sets up his little stall in a bustling vegetable
market in Mirzapur, a small town on the banks of the Ganges in North India’s
Uttar Pradesh. He piles up the tomatoes and carrots in inviting pyramids and
lays out the beans, spring onions and green chili peppers in baskets. Once he
is satisfied with the array, he sits behind the stall and waits.
“Earlier, I’d have whipped out my phone and seen mindless reels on social
media,” he says. But ever since a room behind a tiny shoe shop was converted
into the Mirzapur Community Library next door, Sonkar has started reading, not
because he has any exam to pass, but “for pleasure,” he says. It is a far cry
from his days at school, the class 12 dropout says. “I’m reading a lot of Hindi
literature, which takes me to different worlds and helps me to visualize a
future beyond this crowded, crazy bazaar,” he says.
About 250 miles away, in Hardoi, another small town in the state, a community
library operates out of the compound of the local temple. Children play with
educational toys outside while a free competitive exam preparatory class takes
place within. “We never ask people who come to the Bansa Community Library to
read,” co-founder Jatin Lalit says. For many new readers, he feels that this
could be too much pressure. Instead, they focus on providing a safe, peaceful
space with lots of books. “We leave it to our members to choose whether to
read, study, play or hone their computer skills.”
Such libraries are unusual for a region where literacy rates are at 68.5
percent (the national average is 77.7 percent), and a national survey found
that barely 56 percent of class five students could read a text meant for
students in class two. In the developed world, generously funded public
libraries make it easy for people to access books. But not in rural India.
Uttar Pradesh alone has merely 200 public libraries, but almost 98,000 villages
at last count.
To make books more freely available, small community libraries are mushrooming
across India. The Community Library Project (TCLP) in Delhi began in 2009 as a
book club. It now has four branches in Delhi and gives 4,000 children free
access to books. Over 1,000 miles away, NGO Hasiru Dala started the Buguri
community library project in 2017 for waste-pickers in Karnataka. In the same
state, 17 community libraries called Book Nests operate out of bus stops. Since
2022, the state transport provider Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport has
introduced mobile libraries on several long-distance buses in Mumbai.
“The idea of such small community libraries is to make it as convenient as
possible for people to pick up a book instead of playing with their phones,”
Lalit says. “They are free to use, open to all and most don’t require a
membership fee.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
