DEHRADUN: After Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned Nainital’s ‘Ghoda Library’ in the 105th episode of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ series on Sunday, its innovator Shubham Badhani has decided to expand his unique education campaign so that people in rural areas and children deprived of innovative information in remote rural areas can take full advantage of it.
Speaking to this daily right after the completion of the Mann Ki Baat programme on TV, Shubham, overwhelmed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s encouraging words, said, “The idea of opening this mobile “Ghoda library” came to our mind given the adverse geographical conditions and difficult connectivity routes of the state”.
“Horses, which can work smoothly in these difficult areas, we have used them for this purpose,” Shubham added.
“Diwan Singh Rawat, a farmer from Jalna village, has given us his horse after being impressed by this campaign for this ‘Mobile horse library’ that started on June 12 this year,” said Badhani, adding, “When the news of this ‘Ghoda library’ experiment spread to nearby villages, we got an overwhelming response, as a result of which today we have 10 horses provided by various volunteers from different villages.
Badhani said, “Since the library is mobile, at one round we issue books to the children and on the next round we take back the old books after a week and re-issue the new books.”
“So far the entire network of ‘horse libraries’ has been built in villages like Bagni, Jalna, Gountiya, Dhinwa-khadak, Mahatgaon, Dola, Mahal dhura, Kalsee and Talla Jalna”.
“People in urban areas anyway had easy access to information through TV and huge libraries or workshops and instructors to enhance their knowledge, but, for rural children, getting their hands on a random book somewhere, would open a new window to the world outside their small locality,” Shubham believes.
Expressing concern over the education of children in Uttarakhand, Shubham said, “The biggest concern is that there are still hundreds of remote villages which are not connected to the internet or social media. There are still millions of children who are eager to learn about the outside world and getting a chance to read the book is like a dream come true."