Bihar’s Purnia district has taken the initiative to be the first district to build libraries in every panchayat. The initiative aims to instill the love of reading in students and stop students from migrating from rural to urban regions.
In preparation for competitive and other examinations, youth and students from Purnia’s remote regions have been coming to libraries to study books and browse journals.
Purnia, a central district in Bihar’s Seemanchal region, seems to have a low literacy rate of 52.09 % and yet has evolved into a book paradise, with 237 rural panchayat libraries and 230 rural panchayat libraries, as well as seven city Nagar Parishad libraries.
In January, a district-wide scheme named “Kitab Daan” was initiated to build libraries in each of Purnia’s panchayats, the state’s first of its kind.
{{/usCountry}}In January, a district-wide scheme named “Kitab Daan” was initiated to build libraries in each of Purnia’s panchayats, the state’s first of its kind.
{{/usCountry}}The efforts were led by District Magistrate Rahul Kumar, who worked with officials from the district department of education and villagers to build libraries in each panchayat.
Throughout his frequent trips to rural schools around two years ago, he recognized something needed to be done to develop rural abilities.
“I talked to intellectuals about it and decided to build up rural libraries,” Purnia DM told Hindustan Times. On January 25, 2020, a book donation drive was started.
In Purnia, 190 of the 230 panchayats currently have their libraries. So far, 1.26 lakh books have indeed been acquired under the “Abhiyan Kitab-Daan,” as per Kumar.
The Banmakhi block’s 24 panchayat libraries have more books, 13054, followed by the Amnaour block’s 24 panchayat libraries, which have 12057. He also noted that the government is taking several steps to maintain the initiative’s long-term effectiveness.
This was story was first published on Life Beyond Numbers.