In Bihar, libraries as windows to the world

Harsh Kumar, 22, is studying for a B.Tech degree at Gaya College, a premier institution in Bihar. A resident of Amhara village on the outskirts of Bihar’s capital Patna, about 45 km from the city centre, Kumar’s father is a small farmer, and the family struggles to make ends meet. After he graduated from the government-run Amhara High School, he wanted to work for a degree in engineering, but there were no books available to clear the Bihar Joint Entrance Competitive Examination for admission to various professional courses. “I couldn’t afford the books to read. Had it not been for Didi Ki’s library, I would not have been in this course,” says Kumar.

Launched by the Bihar government last year, the Community Library and Career Development Centers (CLCDC), across 100 blocks in the state, are known as Didi Ki Libraries (roughly translated to a library run by a sister). Free libraries in 32 out of 38 districts are a boon for children from families who cannot afford books. The library offers free internet services and provides a quiet place for children to study and youth to meet and exchange ideas.

Patna district has four libraries in rural areas namely Bihata, Khusrupur, Fatuha and Bakhtiyarpur. Across Bihar, Didi Ki libraries have a 6,000-strong seating capacity while the total enrollment is 1.1 lakh, of which 63% are girls. According to JEEVIKA, an initiative to promote rural livelihood under the Rural Development Department of the Government of Bihar, 60-70 students come there daily.

World Bank-supported JEEVIKA operates Didi Ki Libraries, each headed by Vidya Didi, a dedicated cadre of community activists. The Department of Education supports the initiative by providing books.

A village rejoiced

21-year-old Rinku Kumari graduated in history from Mahant Madhusudan College in Patna in 2024.. she He spends five to six hours every day in the library. “I want to clear the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) exam, and I can’t afford the tuition fees for the coaching institute,” she says.

Coaching institutes can charge anywhere from ₹ 5,000 per month. The average income of a farmer in Bihar in 2021-22 was ₹9,252 against the national average of ₹13,661, according to the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.

In Amharic, she finds books that help her through the entrance exam that at least one million people across India write every year, for just 1,000 posts. She admits that books are limited, but says, “With Wi-Fi, I’m able to download online books for free.”

The library of an Amhara village is painted yellow and has a message in Hindi to avoid the seven sins of Mahatma Gandhi. It has three rooms with a capacity of 60 people at a time and more than 1200 books on shelves. Inside the room are photographs of former president APJ Abdul Kalam and freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose, as well as maps of India and the world, a window to possibilities. Like other libraries, it has cubicles, student chairs with desk extensions, ceiling fans, power backup, water filters, CCTV cameras and LED screens. They also get two newspapers each.

Amhara library teacher Archana Kumari says, “As soon as the competitive exam form is published, I inform the children and help them fill it. We also provide printouts, so they don’t have to go to town for form filling.”

She adds that when the library opened in February 2023, there were 30 children there. Currently, 1,765 are registered in Amhara. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar inaugurated the first library in Madhepura district.

The library operates eight hours a day, weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; And also on Sundays during exams. The library has both fiction and non-fiction, Bihar Board class 8 to 12 textbooks and sample answer papers. Children can issue books, although the preference is for them to read on the site.

Some of the most popular books are many that help students learn English, including Word power made easy By Norman Lewis and Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Like books animal farmGeorge Orwell’s political satire is also popular.

in hindi, Our Constitution Subhash Kashyap and India’s freedom struggle Thoroughly thumbed up, by a group of writers. It has many books for students to prepare for competitive exams for Railways, Banking, and National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET).

In a village in Bihar, a library is usually a distant dream. The state saw a dropout rate of 20.46% at secondary level, the highest in India in 2021-22. The national average was 12.6%.

According to Archana, many students who frequent the library have secured admissions in top institutes like Development Management Institute (DMI) in Bihar. Many have earned a B.Ed degree that will qualify them for teaching jobs.

Mathura Prasad, 54, who lives in Amhara, says, “Since the library opened, it has changed something for us. Earlier, our children used to sit at home doing nothing, listening to family gossip. We cannot afford a separate room for study. ” Most of the children who study in the library walk 5 km to 7 km, to reach; some cycles.

A room for reading

These libraries are emerging as local support systems to increase the participation of rural children and marginalized learners in higher education. They also provide an opportunity for households linked to self-help groups to achieve higher efficiency in their chosen livelihoods.

There are 1,408 registered children in Makhdumpur Panchayat in Jehanabad district of Bihar. A library functions on the first floor of the panchayat building of Kohra village.

21-year-old Pawan Kumar, who is doing his B.Sc in Surendra Prasad Yadav College, says, ‘We have a joint family of 10 and it is difficult to study at home. So, I started coming here four months ago. Now I am a regular. There is no unnecessary chit-chat and the conversations revolve around studies. I heard the word library for the first time when this place opened.”

15-year-old Gudiya Kumari of Makhdumpur village, who is studying in class 9 in a government high school, says, ‘I come here to study and complete my homework. Most homes have something going on. My mother asks me to be involved in the housework, due to which I sometimes fail to complete the homework. Then the teachers would yell at me. Here, she finds a quiet environment to work.

Jehanabad District Social Development Manager (SDM) Faizan Tanveer says the main objective of such a center is to develop and promote library culture in rural areas and impart reading to underprivileged students. It also aims to address issues of child marriage, child labor, and gender discrimination by empowering adolescents, especially girls.

“Didi Ki Library helps identify students with special needs and provides them guidance, mentoring and training support. By connecting teenagers and young adults with education and career opportunities, we are local We hope to build role models,” says Tanveer.

Vidya Didi Shabnam Raza of Kohra Library says that the digital library is used for webinars, career workshops, skill training and preparation courses, various entrance exams in universities and competitive exams for jobs.

“We have collaboration with National Institute of Distance Education (NIOS) and Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). So, we also provide admission support to students,” she said.

The aim is to empower first-generation learners who face cultural and socio-economic barriers to aspire to better education in schools and colleges. Each library is equipped with desktop computers and projectors. Government officials are invited to give guest lectures to the learners and provide career counseling to them.

Big picture planning

Some students complain that they are not able to download large files easily due to the speed of Wi-Fi. Makhdoompur area manager Santosh Kumar says, “We have BSNL net service connection, and being in a rural area, we have to face problems like wire theft. We have requested a private internet connection, which has good service.”

JEEVIKA launched a phased education initiative in 2018. The first partnership began with Pratham Education Foundation, an innovative learning organization. Gradually, partnerships grew with other non-profit organizations such as i-Sakham, which focuses on the leadership of young women, and Bus Turn the Bus, which works in the digital education sector.

IAS officer and Chief Executive Officer-cum-State Mission Director Bihar Rural Life Promotion Society (JEEVIKA), Himanshu Sharma says, “Education is a proven tool to break generational poverty. CLCDCs aim to bridge the gap between disadvantaged rural youth and their urban peers. Special attention has been given to empowering girls who face barriers in higher education.They plan to extend this initiative to 1,671 panchayats, he added. For equal access to education and career opportunities.

CLCDC has also achieved some milestones. They have organized 34 webinars on higher education and career development. More than 2,500 children have applied for technical, professional and vocational courses under career counseling support and 110 have been admitted, including two girls from Miranda House and the prestigious Daulatram College, both colleges under Delhi University.

6 students enrolled in Post Graduate Program in Development Management (PGDM) MBA course with a scholarship of Rs 32 lakh. This year, 62 of those who visited these libraries have been selected as Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) teachers.