CHENNAI: It’s the first time I’m seeing a bus with books”, “We are excited to see this bus come to our village”, “I like this library, it’s colourful and different”, “I attended a workshop on storytelling, and I’m here to read more stories on the bus.” These are some of the voices among thousands of children who are benefitting from a unique initiative by the district administration of Ramanathapuram. A colourful bus with a depiction of children reading in the five landscapes of the Sangam era — Kurinji, Mullai, Marutham, Neithal and Paalai — was launched as a travelling library at the ongoing Mugavai Sangamam – Annual Book Fair 2023. The motive is to encourage the habit of reading and provide library access to all government schoolchildren, and visit places that do not have reading access.
A first for Ramanathapuram, the initiative has gathered much noise and momentum. The creative strategist for community development initiatives, requesting anonymity, says, “This was a collective idea. While planning the book fair, we started by thinking of doing reading rooms in all the government schools. Then we realised that they don’t have the facility to have a separate room. So we thought why not create a library that can move to all these places while we are increasing the reading rooms and facilities in the government schools.”
All aboard
The bus will not only travel to schools but also to old-age homes, government-run homes and early intervention centres. It has an activity area and a reading corner. While workshops on origami, storytelling, palm craft, etc., happen in the activity area, the reading corner has around 1,000 books. “We held a book donation drive, a month before the book fair began, and it is ongoing. So far, we have received around 10,000 books. Part of the books, on rotation, are kept in the bus. Tamil books are taking the forefront considering the nature of the district. Most of the books are children-friendly,” she shares, adding that the district has involved all the government offices to be a part of the drive. On the shelves are genres including literature, biography, science, general knowledge, children’s books, philosophy, law, religion and agriculture.
While the book fair ends on February 19, the bus will continue to tour around the district taking books to the last person. To keep up the excitement, the district government plans to conduct programmes that will focus on Ramanathapuram. The first step towards this was a heritage walk conducted earlier this month. And they plan to do more. “Ramnad has a lot of places; the palace, Dhanushkodi, a bird sanctuary. We want to highlight them and encourage people to visit. Marine conservation is huge here. We want children to relate to such causes,” she says.
To support their efforts, Chennaiites have a role to play too. One is through book donation and the other is by involving themselves in the activities they plan to conduct. “Come to Ramnad, use the bus to do a workshop in the rural space. I think the bus moving around is a message to everybody outside than inside to get involved. We want our children to be accessing a lot of the cool things you do.
There are people in Chennai who conduct nature walks. It will create a huge impact on the people of Ramnad. The community here, the fishermen, need to know what they are doing is a big deal, (that we have) the largest bird sanctuary in the state. Sometimes people from outside bring that excitement,” she points out. The goal of this initiative is simple. “We want every child in Ramnad to find their favourite book,” she signs off.
If you wish to donate books, call +916374284628. People who wish to do workshops and collaborations with the bus library can email admin@wrightintended.com or DM on Mugavai Sangamam’s social media pages.