For the love of books: Here’s how a community library at Mumbai’s Govandi is fostering reading culture among children

"Through books, I have been able to have my own perspective about different things in addition to what we have been taught by our parents and the community," says Shweta Shetty, a part-time manager at the Next Page library at Govandi's Shivaji Nagar area in Mumbai.

As someone who has grown up studying under Anoop Parik, founder of the Next Page Community Foundation (NPCF), the organisation that runs the library, Shetty has developed a deeper interest in reading each day. From Roald Dahl's books to Harper Lee's ‘To Kill a Mockingbird', she says the journey has been an enlightening one. Today, the 20-year-old wilfully manages to take history classes at the library's free workshops for kids, while also working as a football coach with the NPCF's girls' football team.

On a sunny Tuesday afternoon, she is accompanied by her colleague and friend, Khan Farheen Maqsood, who is handling the science workshops at the library's second-level room. A medical aspirant, Farheen is another book lover who keeps the space up and running by helping out neighbourhood kids, who visit the library every day.

"I came here to study for my NEET exams, because I needed a space. During this period, I began checking out other books and that's how my fading interest for reading was reignited," says the 21-year-old.

A considerable number of children from Shivaji Nagar, considered a slum area, voluntarily participate in the library activities run from a two-storey house clubbed between residential houses in the busy area. With artfully designed bookshelves, careful placement of artworks and study materials worked upon by the young enthusiasts, the library offers the community kids a whole new world of books and learning alongside practical experiences.

Parik, who started the library in 2020 after leaving his job as a teacher, says, "I think, the school system is built in such a way that kids do not get freedom to explore their creativity, interests and ideas. I realised that a lot of my kids had interests outside the classroom and they needed something beyond school to be able to access certain opportunities. And a library for me was an automatic answer."

The librarians, Shweta Shetty (20) and Khan Farheen Maqsood (21). Image credit: Raj Patil

Today, the library has around 1000 books donated by the members' friends, family and others and some bought by Parik. From collection of ‘Asterix' comics and the ‘Wimpy Kid' or Harry Potter series to authors like Khaled Hosseini, Sunil Khilnani, Romila Thapar and Shashi Tharoor, the books are meticulously categorised as per genres such as Animals, Comic Series, Story books, Poetry, History, Religion and Mythology, Travel and many more and cater to children as well as young adults who are into reading fiction and non-fiction.

Why are community libraries important?

While Roald Dahl, Ruskin Bond and Enid Blyton are familiar names for children growing up in families with economic and cultural capital, the kids growing up in non-privileged communities with limited opportunities are often disallowed to have equal access to such literature, information and knowledge resources.

"For me, it is about accessibility and freedom. In schools, we do not have a functional library. A library like this has helped kids develop an interest and improve their reading skills," says Shetty.

Parik highlights a library in communities like Shivajinagar can be a game changer and reading can set the children apart at a time when the country's economic and social realities do not present a better picture for the younger generation's future.

Even then, while school books--a mandatory requirement--make their way to the children through multiple sources, not every child is privileged enough to have access to books that expose young minds to the world outside their home, school and tuition. Moreover, the city has only a handful of reading rooms and lending libraries catering to a clientele with strong economic and financial backing.

At the same time, there is a dearth of free accessible public libraries in Mumbai, more so, for children and young students coming from underprivileged socio-economic backgrounds. It is this gap that a free community library helps to bridge by enabling kids to explore books out of their academic syllabus, nurture and expand their worldview.

The bookshelf at the second floor of the house. The donated books undergo suitable checks and categorisation to ensure relevant books for children are placed at the library. Image credit: Raj Patil

Farheen stresses on how the library has exposed children to a rich storehouse of information and has empowered them to think and choose for themselves what they would like to read and know about. "One cannot impart the love for reading at an age of 16, 19 and 21 years. It needs to be developed from an early age. Kids here come and look around for some time and ultimately figure out their book of interest," she notes.

Ways to replicate the model

"I think the key for possibly doing this in other communities is finding people who love books and understanding the power of books, giving them that infrastructure and then seeing it grow organically," says Parik.

Given Parik's profound interest in reading, the idea of setting up a library came naturally to him when he decided to do something for the children at Shivaji Nagar. As finding a space is a major challenge in Mumbai, the local leaders or administrators can facilitate the process of finding a suitable room in every locality and let the young book lovers set up the library and run it.

He stresses on the need for community intervention, rather than a complete hold of local administration, when it comes to managing facilities for knowledge building and access to information. Given that every slum area in Mumbai differs in terms of composition and demographics, it is necessary to ideate and set up facilities that suit the best for the area and the community.

Similar to the way Farheen, Shweta and other girls, who once stepped in to study and volunteered to manage the library, Parik believes it is a chain reaction and the children grow up with a sense of community responsibility to impart the same to the curious new neighbourhood kids reaching out to them for help, academic and otherwise.

"The library will soon organically become a part of the community. There's always a fresh bunch who get interested in books and they'll always bring someone else along. So you're just spreading that joy for reading and knowledge. It is long-term and I think that is an idea that can be replicated across any place," Parik concludes.

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