Rural Library – Inculcating reading habit in 500 rural children

Setting up a Rural Library in India

The article, based on my real life experience, is about setting up Digital Libraries in rural areas to inculcate reading habit among young rural children in India. So, let us start with how the idea of starting a rural library was seeded in my mind.

The Idea for a Rural Library

The story starts with the launch of Project JnanaShala on 5th September 2020, a rural education based initiative, that supports children having no access to wifi/smartphone to attend online school sessions during the current pandemic.

While implementing this Project in 5 rural villages of Karnataka, I observed that none of the villages had any proper or decent library for children studying in the rural schools. As a result, they suffered from lack of exposure and poor access to the outside world.

With a motive to inculcate reading habit and to help the rural kids develop their personality, I started working on a plan to equip the villages with rural libraries.

Planning the Rural Library

The Location

After a lot of deliberations and discussions with the NGO team, it was decided to setup these rural libraries within the community centres, where JnanaShala sessions were being conducted.

We also decided to adopt a hybrid model, wherein books available as hard copies will be supplemented by “kiosks” offering digital content.

Books for the Rural Library

I then started researching on the right type of books to be made available to the rural kids, who could understand only their mother tongue – Kannada and a little bit of English. I came across Pratham Books, which offered “Library in a Classroom” kits, consisting of about 100 books in each kit. These books contain moral stories with a lot of visual content that was available in Kannada and basic English.

In addition to the Library kit, we also planned to purchase books belonging to different genres like Kannada translations of Sudha Murthy or APJ Abdul Kalam, biographies, books on science, drama, music, sex education, astronauts, motivational books, daily newspapers, monthly magazines, wildlife, fiction etc.

For the kiosks we planned to deploy at least 2 desktop Personal Computers loaded with digital content.

Raising Funds and the Launch in Karnataka

The next big task before me was to raise about Rs 5 lacs to implement the Digital Library initiative in the 5 villages. I was a bit skeptical about raising the amount required to purchase Library Kits, Books, PCs etc., especially at a time when donors were more focused on funding Covid related causes. But my apprehension proved wrong and I was overwhelmed by the response from individual donors and Corporates.

From the time the idea was floated on India’s Republic Day (26th Jan 2021), it took us less than 2 months to launch the first Digital Library at Kottagalu village in Karnataka on 12th March 2021. This was followed by 4 other villages in Karnataka in due course of time, but much before the 2nd wave of Covid hit the state.

The timing of the launch proved extremely useful for the rural kids who are spending more time in the Library, due to another lock-down and lack of school based activities since April 2021.

Managing the Digital Library

To manage the Digital Libraries, we hired a lady facilitator called “Grama Gelathi” at each of the 5 villages. They were assigned the responsibility of managing the library and to ensure children from surrounding villages also benefit from the initiative.

Today each Digital Library has impacted the lives of not less than 500 rural students in the 5 Villages. Though the libraries are targeted at rural children aged 8-14 years, even kids not belonging to this age category have started to enjoy the benefit.

Making An Impact

I am of the firm belief that “if we want to change anything in rural India, we must reach out to young children in our villages. A child’s grasping power is at the peak at this age, which has a lasting impact”.

If we inculcate reading habit in young rural children through such libraries and bring access to digital content at their doorstep, we can transform their lives.

Editor’s Note:

To understand and appreciate this project more and to gauge the impact that the project had on the kids and the villages, please read an article titled ‘Digital libraries and the rural landscape‘ published on 10 April 2021 in Deccan Herald.

About The Author

After working for close to 25 years in the corporate world and subsequently as an Ed-Tech Startup entrepreneur for 3 years, Arvind Kamath pursued his calling in the social sector, providing quality education to the under-privileged children especially in rural areas.

He is a qualified CMA (Cost & Management Accountant), CS (Company Secretary), MBA in Finance from the CFA Institute and PMP certified. He earned the Gandhi Fellowship, after attending an intensive program that focused on transformational leadership in the social sector. He is an avid traveller and an active blogger, whose articles have been published in leading Newspapers and Magazines.