How Bansa Community Library Sparked a Reading Movement in Rural Uttar Pradesh

In the rural pockets of Uttar Pradesh, where schools and educational opportunities are notoriously few and far between, a quiet awakening is happening. A few minutes' walk from the Ram Janki Temple in Bansa village, Hardoi district, resides what co-founder of the library and founder and CEO of the Aruna Mithilesh Foundation, under which the library runs, Jatin Lalit Singh describes as "the first free community library of the entire district." 

Law students conceived the Bansa Community Library as an educational initiative and, over time, it has grown into a symbol of hope, breaking down centuries of educational inequality and social barriers in one of India's most backward regions.

The tale starts with a spark of an idea when Jatin least expected it. When Jatin relocated to Delhi to pursue a law degree, he saw The Community Library Project, his first glimpse at a free community library. "I got inspired and I thought I'll start a library in my village, somewhere, whenever I'm rich," he said. But, he instead found inspiration upon seeing familiar faces. "The members who are coming to the library in Delhi, I could see the faces of these members. I could see the same faces in my village, and that is how the motivation started. There was no exposure, no resources to anybody in the village."

This insight ignited the beginning of what would become the Rural Library Movement. Founded under the Bansa Educational Society alongside co-founders Abhishek Vyas and Malvika Aggarwal, Bansa is the second library building on what started in Cheruia village, in the Balia district, and has since expanded to Kalyanpur in Hardoi. 

The library operates under a revolutionary model of community management and sustainability, where local community members run daily operations of the library, whilst the volunteers and library patrons provide remote support to the community for long-term sustainability, going beyond the traditional charity model.

At the heart of Bansa's structure is the student leadership council, who were identified through attendance records as regular attendees who show initiative and genuine engagement with learning. "When we started the library, after four or five months, we could see who the consistent members were, who took initiative in things and really enjoyed coming to the library," said Niharika Aggarwal, Chief Operating Officer of the Aruna Mithilesh Foundation. 

Rather than simply being volunteers, these student leaders are ambassadors for the community by facilitating outreach programmes and house visits to create what she refers to as "a very brotherly, sisterly love" that inspires younger colleagues to aspire to treat each other well. "Children learn by imitating. So they want to imitate whatever they are doing. So you create that role model at a very young age."

The library has a much wider impact than conventional reading programmes, through projects like the Women Readership Enhancement Program, which have significantly changed the dynamics of village life. 

Now serving children from 35-40 villages in district, Bansa, a rural community library, is now the regional centre of transformative educational change. Women who were previously shy now ask for books and want to have home delivery service through book packets. 

"It's really nice to see women at leisure, how they work, how they can use their leisure time," Srajal Patel, Director of Bansa Community Library who is working on ground and leading the Women Readership Enhancement Project critiques, discussing how the program has given space to women where they can "come together and sit and share, and talk about anything. Just pick up a book even if you can't read, to scroll. You play games with your friends. You talk about stuff that you don't usually talk about."

The library's program for competitive examination preparation has slowed the pace of out-migration from the village to the city. Aspirants are now provided with coaching offers, technological devices, and access to online classes locally. They have been given opportunities to study without moving away for further education. 

“Libraries try to bridge the gap. Someone who is in my village, where there was no library, no exposure, no mentorship, and someone in Delhi, who has access to mentorship, libraries, books, resources, everything. And now they go for the same exam and have to answer the same questions," Jatin notes. 

Through technology inclusion and curated classes in English and computer applications, the library also ensures that rural students have access to the same educational websites and tools as students studying in the cities.

Nonetheless, there are challenges. Caste-based barriers and discrimination remain a major hindrance, such as upper-caste families who are unwilling to send their child, because lower-caste children attend the same class. Gendered constraints limit women's presence because families wonder what women gain by going to a library. 

Educational prejudice favours academic texts over storybooks, although Jatin recognises that "slowly, slowly the needle is moving, the things are changing. People are trying to understand that storybooks are important, and reading for pleasure is important."

Bansa's integrated model for building community is what truly distinguishes it. Film screenings, women's events, watching cricket matches live, and other social events demonstrate, as Niharika calls it, "much more lively space for members to come and explore." These activities accomplish several objectives: exposing villagers to new experiences, fostering community bonds, and challenging conventional ideas about the library space. 

When 200 children attended a live cricket match in Lucknow, 80% of those children had never been to a large city before. The value of this living cricket match was much deeper than recreation; it was evidence of confidence-building and broadening of horizons.

As the founders look ahead, they anticipate extending their impact by way of sub-reading rooms, mini-libraries or racks in surrounding villages, as well as through program developments for married and older women who are not already asking, “What is the value of learning?” 

Jatin notes that as they have transitioned from being law students to community catalysts, their educational society, the Aruna Mithilesh Foundation, has existed since last year, and this library, located next to a temple in the village, signifies so much more than just a library. It is a model for empowerment, a rollback on social hierarchies, and, ultimately, it symbolises the potential of books and community power as agents of revolution. With more libraries on the run to be opened under the umbrella of the foundation, the future is bright.