Mobile Toy Library

The Mobile Toy Library, a project of Ruchika Social Services Organization is a colorful bus full of toys and educational material that drives to slums of Bhubaneswar, India and stops where the children can come and play with the toys. The Mobile Toy Library also has a librarian who travels with the bus and works with the children. 0 million children in India are forced to live and work on the streets. Many children work to help support their families, while others are orphans. These children scrape by doing many varied menial jobs such as sweeping, selling newspapers, running errands, or shining shoes. With funds already so tight, most of these children cannot afford to go to school. Slums across India are filled with children looking for food and work. Homelessness and street life have extremely detrimental effects on children. Their unstable lifestyles, poor living conditions, and lack of medical care make children more likely to have chronic illnesses such as respiratory or ear infections and HIV/AIDS

A Library by Workers for their Library

A musty 8x 10 room in EWS Colony (Economically Weaker Section) is an unlikely place for a library. But this library, set up by the Textile Mazdoor Union in Ludhiana about three months ago, is already a hit with the colony's children. The library has issued and re-issued 1,200 books to children of the area ever since it was set up. While some of the books have been donated by Deshbhagat Yadgaari Society, Jalandhar, the rest have been contributed by the union. A few books have come from anonymous donors. The library has rows of shelves lined with books written by Premchand, Leo Tolstoy, Mitarsen Meet and Karl Marx. The books are mainly in Hindi and Punjabi. The children's section has story books, picture books and math puzzle books of the National Book Trust. Rajwinder Singh, a union member and the brain behind this library, says, "Workers are often thought of as being illiterates. Though many of them are illiterate, there are some who have cleared class X and XII. And even if they want to read something, there is no place they can go to. We have about 600 books in our library. We don't have an elaborate seating arrangement, but we will be happy if we manage to get our workers and their children into the habit of reading. The response has been good so far." Gautam, a casual worker, says, "I used to come to this library to read newspapers. Now I also read Lalkar, a magazine for workers." Visitors to the library sit on the floor and a register maintains a record of the books issued. The colony's children are regular visitors. "The children are mainly interested in reading story books with pictures and Tarksheel Society, a rationalists' body, has donated us a few books on how we must fight superstitions. The children learn Punjabi in school so they have books in Punjabi and Hindi," says Rajwinder Singh.

Children's Own Library

A reading space for, of and by children wins an award While libraries in the city are struggling to sustain themselves with the advent of the Internet, e-books and podcasts, a library in a village can still prove a crucial window to the world beyond. The children's library started by Child Rights Trust (CRT) Chagalatti village, situated eight kilometres from the International Airport, is proof of how a library can broaden a child's world. That it is managed entirely by the children of the village is an additional feather in its cap. Top of the heap The library was last week given an award by the Hippocampus Reading Foundation (HRF) as the “best library in a community centre”. The foundation has also donated a large number of English books to the library and trained children in library maintenance. Various genres Chagalatti village (called “chocolate” by its residents!) is the only library within a 15-km radius, explains Nagasimha Rao of CRT. It has over 1,700 books in English and Kannada, covering a wide variety of genres including fiction, non-fiction and reference books.