Words that help us belong—how grassroots libraries are shaping lives, from Assam to Karnataka

The Print

14-05-2025

Today, Gautam runs a library of 2,500 books, which isn't just a simple reading room. The Savitribai Phule Village Library and Resources Centre that she opened in Sarwagauhan Urfsinghgarh village in Allahabad district in November 2020 has become a symbol of resistance against caste oppression as well as a safe space for the excluded to discover and realise their aspirations.
Gautam didn't realise it then but what began as storytelling would go on to become something much larger.
New Delhi: After quitting her job and returning home, Amit Gautam would sit by a pond in her village in eastern Uttar Pradesh, telling stories to children who came to catch fish. 'Later, I would read Ambedkar's words to them,' recalls Gautam, a transgender Dalit woman.
The collection of books at the library is telling.
It has a Dalit literature corner that houses books such as Bhagwan Buddha aur Unka Dhamma and The Constitution of India by B.R. Ambedkar, Ek Desh Barah Duniya by Shirish Khare, Besharam by Taslima Nasreen and Main Malala Hu by Malala Yousafzai, among other such books inspiring resistance.
'Villagers from my caste built the library without charging labour costs,' she says. 'No official came forward. I had to borrow and raise funds for the infrastructure in the library.'
Gautam's library isn't the only one. Across India, grassroots libraries are changing lives—from Dalit villages in Uttar Pradesh to tribal areas in Jharkhand and settlements of the flood-displaced in Assam.
Often funded by community efforts or meagre government funds, these spaces are breaking caste and gender barriers, empowering first-generation learners and preserving indigenous knowledge.
India does not have a national library policy. Libraries are a state subject, and 19 states have library legislation. However, access to public libraries is often patchy. So, individuals like Gautam have to step in with initiatives, and it is the civil society activists and local leaders who campaign for concrete interventions by the Centre and states.
Last month, a day after Ambedkar Jayanti, the Right to Read campaign submitted the People's National Library Policy (PNLP) 2024 to Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat as a template for library reforms for governments.
The campaign demanded 'decentralised, autonomous, state-funded libraries guided by a national policy formulated with stakeholders'—as the PNLP proposes—says co-convener Mridula Koshy.
The PNLP 2024 document by the Free Libraries Network, a collective of over 250 libraries in South Asia, says India has roughly 1 rural public library for every 11,500 people and 1 urban library for every 80,000, much lower than the global 1 library for every 3,000 people.
India has 54,856 public libraries, the Union culture ministry website shows. However, there are many barriers to accessibility, especially for the poor and marginalised.
The Delhi Public Library, for instance, charges a fee that makes it inaccessible for economically weaker users.
Digital inequities such as poor internet access or a lack of computers in rural libraries make the national virtual library inaccessible.
'In cities, barriers such as forms that need filling or discrimination against the urban poor keep out those who need libraries the most,' says Koshy.
ThePrint has reached the joint secretary of library reforms in the Union culture ministry through emails and the assistant private secretary of Union minister Shekhawat. This report will be updated if and when they respond.
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Grassroots efforts-led library movement
While activists campaign for a library policy, civil servants, grassroots workers and NGOs in many states are working to make libraries free, inclusive and welcoming—especially for the most vulnerable in rural areas.
In Jharkhand, which does not have a Library Act yet, tribal community members have built libraries for their use.
One of the key figures is Sanjay Kachhap, known as the 'library man of Jharkhand'. He has opened over 40 libraries in the tribal hinterland of Jharkhand.
'The emphasis is on providing children with books they urgently need—school textbooks their parents can't afford,' Kachhap, recognised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Mann ki Baat in 2022, tells ThePrint.
In Karnataka, Uma Mahadevan, a 1992-batch IAS officer now serving as the state's additional chief secretary of the Panchayati Raj department, has had a significant impact.
During COVID-19, Mahadevan proposed keeping libraries open longer and on weekends. She envisioned library makeovers, with murals, child-size sofas and gardens for the elderly, along with new libraries for rural children to continue their studies, while following mask protocols.
Since the initiative took off, 50 lakh children have become members free of cost.
'During COVID-19, more children started visiting the libraries to continue learning. Libraries existed before, but at the time, the panchayats invested in making them welcoming. Civil society organisations also came forward, ' Mahadevan tells ThePrint.
Karnataka has a library Act, but before Mahadevan stepped in, 330 of over 5,500 panchayats did not have libraries. Now, all do, says Mahadevan.
A library cess from property taxes, state government funds and the 15th Finance Commission funds for local bodies covered the renovation and building work.
The 15th Finance Commission allocated nearly Rs 5 lakh crore to local governments, municipalities and panchayats for 2021-26. States and local bodies can use a portion of these funds for public infrastructure, which encompasses libraries under basic services or cultural preservation.
However, there is no specific mandate to build libraries. Officials like Mahadevan have had to take a proactive stance on libraries to allocate these central funds for infrastructural work.
Mahadevan's passion is reflected on her X account, where she posts under the handle @readingkafka. She has posted four pictures of children in rural libraries reading newspapers, captioned: 'Read the newspapers every day in the public library. Stay informed.'
Another post shows two girls rifling through picture books.
Similarly, former Jamtara Deputy Commissioner Faiz Aq Ahmed Mumtaz fuelled the library movement in his district in Jharkhand. Jamtara, one of India's most backward districts and once the 'phishing capital of India', now has 118 functional, geotagged libraries in 118 panchayats.
Faiz Ahmed says that besides government funds, donations from the communities that benefit from the libraries have gone a long way. 'I tell people that if you can donate lakhs of funds for festivals, you can donate a share in libraries, too,' he adds.
What can the Centre do? Under the central government, the National Mission on Libraries, along with Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation, has helped build India's digital library infrastructure, but activists say the model is deeply exclusionary.
At the meeting with Gajendra Sekhawat on 15 April this year, library campaigners tried to raise these concerns.
'The minister was polite but repeatedly said, 'People are now reading digitally, and we have a national digital library'. Since we raised the issue [exclusionary libraries], he said he would find out what ministers preceding him did,' says Koshy.
'We wanted to read 10 postcards before him, but he heard only two… In one of them, a young person says, 'I came late into education and came into my life later. I would like there to be no delay for someone else'.'
Breaking caste and gender barriers
Caste remains a barrier to accessibility in any space across India, and libraries are no different, as Gautam experienced.
'In my childhood, the upper caste people in the village mocked me. Even in Allahabad city, where I completed higher education, I found academic spaces stifling, inhibiting my self-expression. I also had no inspiration—who could I look up to?' asks Gautam.
Later, working with a non-profit, she discovered B.R. Ambedkar and Savitribai Phule and realised that caste discrimination was not just her problem but afflicted many. Their emphasis on education planted the seed of giving back to her community in her mind – through a library.
She started campaigning on social media, requesting books and funds. Publishing houses such as Pratham Prakashan and Taraprakashana came forward. Now, the Free Libraries Network also sends her books.
Her library also has NCERT books for children, and Gautam translates English books into Hindi so children can read them.
'Two children, who were regulars at the library, have passed the national-level exams and want to go abroad for further education,' says Gautam proudly.
She organises outreach programmes in nearby villages, where they distribute posters about the library. Children from those villages have also been flocking to the library to read and are learning to question authority.
'There was this child who asked the school principal: 'Why are the framed photos of Nehru, Gandhi, Azad and Netaji on the wall while Ambedkar's photo is behind the cabinet?'' says Gautam.
The library project hasn't been easy.
With Gautam bringing anti-caste discourse into villages, she drew the ire of upper-caste people, who, she says, implicated her in a fabricated police dispute.
'Brahmins lodged a false police complaint in April 2020, soon after the Ambedkar Jayanti celebrations at the library. Two other men got in a tussle, but the police picked me up and kept me in the lock-up for a night,' says Gautam.
'But, over time, people understood I am not here to disrupt the peace.'
Like Gautam, many others from the north to the northeast are turning libraries into safe spaces for resistance.
In Assam, this has fuelled a quiet revolution in gender identity.
Ritu, a transgender woman and founder of queer rights organisation Akam Foundation, 'envisioned a library as a space to assert rights' while she was facing discrimination against her gender identity in her youth.
'I was lucky that my father was a school teacher and owned books. Books gave me comfort and safety. Books saved my life. But nobody should have to be lucky to access books,' says Ritu.
Ritu runs the free Kitape Katha Koi library in Jorhat district and the free Chandrababa library in Dibrugarh district.
'Our village in Jorhat is filled with internally displaced persons who had fled the flooding of their settlements in Majuli village. I saw widespread poverty, with the men eventually going into construction work and the women marrying by 18-19 years, a maximum of 21, and soon having children,' says Ritu.
'Thanks to books, I could aspire for something else,' she adds.
Ritu first opened the Jorhat free library, which she calls 'a safe and democratic space' for all identities, with her collection of 650 books in August 2021. It now houses 2,000 books and has 100 children from five villages as members.
'Children should be given opportunities to shape their worldview and make choices. Books drove me to tell my father that I had made a choice. I could make a conscious decision,' she says.
In Ritu's case, villagers and volunteers from other areas helped. A local woman joined as a librarian while the non-profit Selo Foundation brought solar power, ending her worries about electricity connection costs.
Is inculcating a reading culture in villages difficult? Ritu's answer is clear: 'Everyone wants to read. When there is no library, then there is no interest. The key is creating a welcoming space.'
Ritu had one advantage: she didn't have to contend with the more private consumption of books, as seen in urban spaces. 'Village networking is different. Villagers know each other. Word-of-mouth goes a long way,' she says.
That's how her libraries became popular.
Ritu says outreach programmes in villages and a diverse collection of books also draw in children.
Her libraries have a curated collection of feminist and queer stories and young adult books, along with a dedicated children's corner.
Her libraries feature the writings of Santa Khurai, Gauri Sawant and Manabi Bandhopadhyay—who discuss transgender rights, inclusivity and intersectionality—and a collection from Zubaan Books, an independent feminist publishing house.
Open mics, where 'they can be who they want, dress up the way they want', are popular among the youth. Library members also celebrate Bihu and Diwali. All these contribute to a culture of visiting the library and reading, says Ritu.
For independent library owners, funding is a big challenge.
Ritu does not want outside funding, fearing it can stop anytime, putting her libraries at more risk than now. But library maintenance costs are hard to cover, even as people donate books easily. CSR funds are not enough, she says.
Jatin Lalit, who runs the free-of-cost, anti-caste Bansa Community Library and Resource Centre in Mallawan, Uttar Pradesh, says, 'Do not open a library without a two-year backup plan.'
He opened the library on land given to him by a temple for 99 years at the rate of one rupee, books sent by the Free Libraries Network and crowdfunding. But now, he is applying for grants to keep his library running.
He says initially, not everyone in the village rooted for him, with some saying, 'Nobody reads anymore'.
However, 'if you put books on the shelves and create a welcoming environment, people read', Jatin adds. 'The only sustainable financing model is government support. Membership fees are exclusionary.'
His library has an Ambedkarite literature corner, books authored by Premchand and Mahadevi Verma, and pictures and storybooks for children. The library timings have been broadcast in newspapers, and a legal literacy programme, a kisan (farmers) corner and a 'silai' (stitching) centre have also been set up on the premises to bring in adults.
Jatin aspires to open a library-on-wheels for girls who live far from his library, but funds remain a worry.
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Jharkhand model: From textbooks to literature
Despite financial challenges, community members don't give up. Jharkhand, in particular, has built a strong library culture, mainly focused, for now, on academics but with ambitions to move towards literary reading and writing, especially in indigenous languages.
Kachhap, who hails from Jharkhand's Chaibasa in Western Singhbhum, started the library initiative with friends to offer children spaces to study and textbooks beyond their reach.
'We all faced hardships while growing up, especially in education. We wanted to crack the National Defence Academy exam or civil services but could not buy the books. So, we wanted to fill that gap, ' Kachhap, a first-generation graduate, tells ThePrint.
'We will open another library in Lalmati village in Rajmahal [Sahebganj district] soon.'
First, Kachhap's team convinces villagers about the benefits of a library and then repurposes an unused government or school building, or a vacant village community hall into one.
The team engages a group of youth to run the operations, and once the library is a little stable, the team departs. The library is then maintained by the youth, with funding sourced from both within and outside the community.
With Kachhap's team now digitising libraries, many Dalit and Adivasi children in remote villages can finally access computers.
How is his library different from urban libraries?
'We encourage tribal children to go for higher education and embrace their culture and regional languages, like Mundari or Santhali. We tell them they can now reach positions of power and then help our people move forward,' Kachhap says.
Kachhap says he is, already, seeing the results: 'Children are dreaming bigger.' Now, the villages have more first-generation graduates, postgraduates and students aiming to study abroad.
This isn't Jharkhand's only success story.
In 2020-21, then deputy commissioner of Dumka and now Saraikela DC R.S. Shukla revamped the Dumka State Library by engaging artiste Akshaya Bahibala and Kachhap's team.
The project began almost by accident.
An avid reader, Shukla dropped into a library he had noticed in front of the district collectorate during lunch hour. He found it was a Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation sister concern, with RRRLF sending books every three months.
'But there were so many unopened books; they were just stacked there,' Shukla tells ThePrint. 'It motivated me to do something.'
At the time, footfall at the library was low. Users complained about the lack of water supply, a non-functioning air conditioning system, and the lack of any option to borrow books.
That's where the deputy commissioner stepped in.
While cleaning the premises, his team found a mini truck, once used as a mobile library in the 1970s.
It was refurbished with a fresh coat of paint and stacks of books, and repurposed as a 'library museum'.
Soon, the renovated truck created a buzz among the local youth.
As more people started visiting the library, the team expanded the library collection. 'Then, we resolved to keep the library free of cost,' says Shukla.
His team used corporate social responsibility funds, state government funds and untied district funds to plug the critical gaps.
Since then, four literature festivals have been held in Dumka. Two of them spotlighted Santhali indigeneity, with discussions on the work of Norwegian missionaries P.O. Bodding and Lars Olsen Skrefsrud, who documented Santhali literature.
The festivals have drawn more readers to the library. And students have started seeing libraries as an opportunity to 'open themselves to the world of books, and in the process, open themselves to the world itself', rather than just a space for exam preparations, says Shukla.
Locals have developed a thriving library movement in Jharkhand's tribal areas. However, Dumka-like literature festivals require the backing of an official like Shukla.
Kachhap's library initiative is doing wonders but on a smaller scale. Too little government support makes it difficult to sustain the libraries opened by his team. However, their determination is limitless.
Rakesh Soren, a freelance architect, works with a community group that runs three libraries in the Dumka district. 'The main problem with first-generation learners is their lack of focus. We aim to inculcate focus in children,' he says.
Soren joined the library movement to give back to the community, shaped by his understanding of the problems that tribal children face.
'We try to provide textbooks to children and awaken their curiosity through drawing and painting,' he says, adding that a Champak subscription is a highlight of the libraries.
Similarly, Rameshwar Boipai is part of the community group that runs libraries in Chaibasa district with CSR and community funds.
Set up by Kachhap's team, Chaibasa's seven libraries mainly cater to the needs of the below-poverty-line families from the Oraon and Ho tribes, Boipai, a 2018 Benaras Hindu University graduate, tells ThePrint.
The focus is on academics and competitive exams, but the libraries encourage literary reading, says Boipai.
'The libraries flourished during COVID-19 when schools shut their doors to children,' he adds, highlighting that encouraging education is one of the main roles of rural libraries.
Boipai, who works at the rural development department, says the youth are more interested in tribal poet Anuj Lugun or author Nilotpal Mrinal while Premchand and Vinod Kumar Shukla are 'still favourites among the older generation'.
He adds that the Jharkhand library movement also plays a vital role in promoting regional languages, particularly by supporting the development of scripts for the Kurukh language, spoken by the Oraon tribe, and the Ho language. UNESCO has listed Kurukh and Ho as vulnerable languages.
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What is missing in the l
ibrary movement
& solutions
As the library movement gains ground, senior officials say its long-term success depends on local ownership, the willingness of states to step in, and a central policy push on the states.
Shukla says the learning from the current library movement is 'when administrative officers empower the community to take up a project, it is no longer dependent on us. If we are gone, the community will take it forward.'
However, he emphasises that officers have a role in the library movement by intervening and helping with funds to rejuvenate libraries.
IAS officer Faiz Ahmed emphasises how the library network will be more sustainable if libraries are institutionalised. If national policy-aided state legislations are in place, after the transfer of any officer interested in books and libraries, the officer replacing him will have to keep a tab on the existing libraries.
Faiz Ahmed added that the needs of various libraries were different. Some require more grants than others, or motivation through inter-village debates or awards. Others, like village libraries, need textbooks, whereas more affluent villages need literature. 'There is no one-size-fits-all.'
Central initiatives are welcome, but states alone can sustain the library network, Karnataka's additional chief secretary Mahadevan believes.
'They can legislate and ensure libraries are accessible and free. Many states have set the standard, which others can follow,' she says.
According to Mahadevan, library committees at the panchayat level, a concept that Karnataka is trying to emulate from Kerala's library movement, is the way.
Kerala has the second-highest number of libraries thriving under local governance and state support.
'A library movement can only be public, with residents and panchayats involved,' Mahadevan says.
Mahadevan also says that unlike in urban areas where people go to the library to borrow books only, libraries are vibrant centres in rural communities.
She adds that rural libraries in Karnataka are places, where children play, girls are safe, people with disabilities use tactile material and learning aids to study, and village seniors get together.
She says that under the Capital Assistance Programme, the state will build nearly 7,000 new village-level libraries for children far from the panchayat-level libraries.
Shukla explains why libraries are important in a democracy like India: 'Books develop critical thinking.'
To explain the significance of libraries for the marginalised, he turns to a riddle from Amartya Sen to explain John Stuart Mill's philosophy, utilitarianism: 'Take three kids and a flute. One kid claims the flute, saying she is the only one who can play it. Another claims the flute, saying he is too poor to buy flutes. The third kid says the flute is hers because she made it. Who deserves the flute?'
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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