Mobile libraries at doorsteps enlightening Naogaon people

Recently introduced 10 mobile libraries are enlightening the rural people of all 10 unions of Mohadevpur upazila of Naogaon for more than a month as those are getting a huge response.

Upazila Nirbahi Officer Tajkir-Uz-Zaman took the initiative to reach books to the doorsteps of common people, especially schoolchildren, who cannot afford those.

“We named the mobile library Deepshikha (flame),” Tajkir told The Daily Star.

Around 1,000 booklovers are visiting all the 10 libraries daily, one in each union, said the UNO.

Different kinds of books -- including fictions, dictionaries and those which can help school students understand their text books -- are available at the libraries.

The people are benefiting from the process as they can read or borrow books, some of them are expensive, for free, said locals.

The upazila administration used rickshaw-vans for setting up the mobile libraries.

Village police of each union are assigned to voluntarily carry Deepshika to one village to another in their respective unions every day.

Weekly, they stop at at least three educational institutions to facilitate students.

Ranjit Roy, one of the caretakers of Deepshikha, said this van is also helping him generate income as the authorities concerned allowed him to use the vehicle to sell educational materials, including notebooks, pens, pencils and geometry boxes.

“Those who have no ability to buy a book, they can borrow it easily,” said Ranjit, adding that he is quite happy for being a part of the initiative.

“From almost everywhere I got positive response from all walks of people especially schoolchildren,” he said.

Suriya, a class VIII student, said it is a good initiative to spread knowledge among children in rural areas. “It's helpful for us as it has the books that we cannot afford,” she said.

“Living in a village, we couldn't imagine a library before for reading books at our doorsteps,” Suriya said with a smiling face.

Hailing the initiative, librarian Liakat Ali said the UNO took the project to spread knowledge among people who are keen to learn but cannot afford books.

UNO AKM Tajkir-Uz-Zaman said he spend Tk 6.5 lakh for the project, which came from the government fund.

“We have a plan to upgrade the mobile libraries in the future. We want to build up a habit of reading books among rural people,” he said.

Local lawmaker Salim Uddin Tarafdar also appreciated the initiative.