Reading between Lines

A 20x12 feet space — with 60 books, four chairs, a table, a carpet and a shelf — has taken a village on the road to learning right under the shadow of Naxal guns.

A 20×12 feet space — with 60 books, four chairs, a table, a carpet and a shelf — has taken a village on the road to learning right under the shadow of Naxal guns.

Run under the supervision of the local wing of the Ram Krishna Mission (RKM) and an NGO, Gramin Pustakalya has changed the way Mungadih lives. A visit to the library found at least 10 school students engrossed in reading while its caretaker Malia Bedia, transistor in hand, was soaking in the sun and listening to the news bulletin on the FM band of the AIR.

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“The library has created an atmosphere of learning in the village. We have never been troubled by the Naxalites. We have as many as 250 members and many of them visit the library daily,” says Bedia.

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It came as a result of the National Policy on Education with the objective: “Self-directed continuing education in the perspective of the life-long learning through library service. This also includes the skill development programme for personal, social and occupational development.”

To institutionalise the library service at ground zero under the National Literacy Mission’s (1989) Continuing Education Programme (1998), the Ranchi district administration submitted a plan to the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development in 2001 envisaging its management through a committee comprising half a dozen members of the village. The ministry approved the plan and sanctioned Rs 6.26 crore last year. On August 14, 2006, RKM in league with NGO Manthan set up the library at Mungadih. The experiment was soon replicated in neighbouring Imra, Guttidih, Chaladih, Tuti and Jirki villages under the Angara block of Ranchi district.

At each of these libraries, the membership fee is Rs 5 per month. Now, the district administration is gearing up to get 1,012 libraries-cum-continuing education centres in as many villages in Ranchi district on the Republic Day. And to ensure that the persons in charge — nominated by the village committee to run the libraries — are trained, the administration has roped in 16 NGOs. “We are going to house these libraries in community centres built with the development funds,” said Ranchi Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Soan.

However, there are some like Pragati Manjhi and Ratan Torkey, who have cleared Class X and say the books are of no use to them. And then there is Bedia who finds lack of electricity and a monthly pay of Rs 250 “demoralising”.

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Soan, who is supervising the project, assures: “As soon as these villages are connected with power and telephone, we will provide each CEC with Net connection.”