Malkangiri women set up roadside library for kids

BHUBANESWAR: A group of 20-odd tribal women in Malkangiri district have taken it upon themselves to inculcate a reading habit among youngsters, who they feel spend more time engrossed in their phones and less in books. Hoping to wean away the youth from their phones, the women have opened a roadside library near Arts College in Malkangiri.
The library, which has been stocked with books that the women donated, as well as those given by local residents, was inaugurated on Diwali.It has been modelled on a similar initiative in Arunachal Pradesh’s Nirjuli, which, in turn, was inspired by the bird-box libraries of Mizoram’s Aizawl. The Malkangiri library was inaugurated by a 70-year-old woman, Puspanjali Choudhury, who contributed a few books herself. Currently, it offers only on-the-spot reading facility.
“A few years ago, we set up a library at the Malyabanta Hostel, which houses orphans of the district. The response was not very encouraging. We decided to move it out as we expect more people to spend the balmy winter evenings reading in the open,” said Jayanti Buruda, a member of Bada Didi, the group behind the initiative. “Reading books builds our patience and influences us in a positive way,” said Buruda.
Agreed eminent writer Dash Benhur. “Book reading sharpens our focus, which is bound to be hampered while reading from a cellphone. The blue light emitted by the screen leads to eye strain. We are traditionally more attuned to reading from books, as our ancestors would read from palm-leaf manuscripts,” he said.
Currently, the library has 80 books in Odia, English, Bengali and Assamese, neatly stacked on a stand and protected by a shed. The money to build the library has been given by the group members, who have set up two benches for the readers. The women have also started fashioning some seats from used tyres. The library is kept open from 6 am to 11 am and again from 3 pm to 9 pm, and is manned by four girls.
Among the book donors are poet Balaram Pujari, principal of Women’s Higher Secondary School, Malkangiri, Dushmanta Kumar Jena, and teacher of Darlabada School in Chitrakonda, Siva Prasad Sarkar, besides two journalists from Hyderabad and Mumbai. “I have provided some second-hand books of Plus II Arts and CBSE X and XII, 10-year question papers, guides and textbooks as many students cannot afford these. I plan to provide 50 more books on general knowledge, biographies and short stories,” said Jena.
The group, whose members are drawn from the Paraja, Koya, Bhumia, Kui Kandha and Bonda (a particularly vulnerable tribal group) tribes, has also started a social media campaign seeking more books for their library.