Black and Veatch Libraries... A Ray of Hope

What do books do for children? If we have to say it in one sentence, we would say, “Books free the mind and the spirit of children.”

In schools, the text books are prescribed. It is prescribed when and what the children will learn and what they must think and feel. However with books--fiction and non-fiction, poetry and prose, there is no compulsion of any sorts, even of reading. Hence the experience of books frees the children.

Books are a window to the world, to different cultures, people and ideologies. When a child engages with a book and enjoys the story without worrying about exams, she starts thinking and wondering about all the things he has seen and read in the book. Books expand her mind. Enrich her life. Make her understand that people all over the world share the same emotions they experience. Make her think and become more tolerant of differences.

With this in mind we started libraries in 6 villages around Phaltan town—Wakhari, Dhawal, Tardhaph, Malawdi, Kurawali and Tathawada. We are running this programme with the financial help of the esteemed Black and Veatch engineering and construction company. 1020 children in the age group of 6-14 borrow books to take home. The six library volunteers, apart from maintaining the library and issuing out books, visit the local government schools every day to read to children and do some literacy activities. Some of them even have walk 3-4 kilometers to reach some of the wasti-shalas.  We have children borrowing up to 40 books within the span of 2 months.

The first library was inaugurated at Malawadi by a team from B&V office on 28th January 2016. Mr. Tahirnakkash Maner, piping stress engineer B & V and former student of Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan was instrumental in getting this project to PSS.

Schools do have libraries of sorts but do children have access to books? What is the quality of books? How are the illustrations in the books? Do they interest children? Does a facilitator help them understand the book or carry out activities based on the book? We can guess the answers to these questions looking at the crowds in the B&V libraries.

Our dream for B&V libraries is that they should create joy in the lives of children-children from remote villages, children from tiny hamlets without roads, and children without any homes, whose admission in the schools only remains on paper.