The Bihar government is encouraging children in rural villages to read by creating “Didi ki libraries”. The first library was opened in Singheshwar by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on February 10. Over 100 libraries have been opened in 32 districts, with Community Library and Career Development Centres (CLCDCs) set up in many blocks of the state. The CLCDCs have been established by Jeevika as study centres of various courses recognised by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) to promote education in rural children. There are a total of 12,318 members registered in all the 100 community libraries, of which about 80 per cent are girls.
63 government buildings have been taken over for the purpose, while the remaining 37 are being developed in private houses hired by Jeevika. The building marked for the operation of CLCDC has a hall, which can accommodate about 30-40 people and two rooms, in which one room is used as a physical and digital library-cum-office and the other room is used as a study room. The hall is used for other teaching-training activities including conducting digital and physical classes as per the requirement. Books for preparation of various higher education entrance exams including class 9th to 12th textbook, e-books and notes are available in the library.
Residents are supportive of the initiative, with Rohan Rai, a resident of Singheshwar who works as a labourer, saying that girls were not able to study properly at home.
