By Felix Anthony
Nirjuli, Sept 12, 2020: A young woman from a small town in Arunachal Pradesh has set up a roadside ‘Street Library’ with just a rack loaded with books and couple of wooden benches for readers to sit.
“It is only 10 days since we set up this Street Library and the response from the readers has been so overwhelming,” said Meena Ngurang, a government school teacher and the founder of the library at Nirjuli in the Papum Pare district of the northeastern Indian state.
Meena told Matters India that no book has been stolen so far from his open rack. “I am not worried even if they get stolen. I will be glad as they will be of some purpose to the thief. What can a person do with a book other than reading?” she added.
Inspired by a story on Mizoram’s mini wayside library, Meena and her friend Diwang Hoasi, a graduate in English honors, came up with the idea of the street library in Arunachal Pradesh.
“The idea of empowering destitute women and widows, adult literacy and fight against child marriage and polygamy has always fascinated me,” says Meena, an economic graduate from Bengaluru.
She had started Ngurang Learning Institute in 2014 to “give wings to our goal in life and to keep alive the memory of our late father.” Her younger sister Reena Ngurang, a doctorate scholar from New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, helped her to start the institute.
“For the past six years, NIL has helped more than 1,000 people to read and write and to start living a dignified life with our skill development training programs. The lockdown, which put a break to the regular programs, led us to come up with a new concept to continue our service to humanity without hurdle,” Meena explained.
Children under ten and working women are most frequent visitors to the one of its kind library in the state. “The teenagers are too embarrassed to read by the roadside. Therefore, we have decided to start lending books to encourage reading at home” says the social worker.
Functional round the clock, the single-rack street library contains a slew of books of different topics of interest.
“We are overwhelmed by the reaction of the readers and greatly encouraged by the appreciation from people all around. We want to extend this street library into every village and town of Arunachal Pradesh, which has more wine shops than bookstores,” Reena said.
Considering the positive effect of this street library on people, many volunteers have come ahead to donate books for the rack. Some have helped with cash to buy more books for the library.
“We hope our humble initiative will encourage other youth leaders in every district to start one in their own villages to infuse a taste for reading in the people of Arunachal Pradesh,” Meena added.
I admire the positive outlook of Meena and Reena. Though the activity appears to be small, but the value is great. Meena & Reena please try cracking the upsc exams, for you are made for greater things.. God bless you.