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UC Berkeley professor pushes for public library system in India
Sethi engaged with the Free Library Network in a collaborative initiative.
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Sethi conducts a read-aloud session in January in, Yavatmal District, Maharashtra. / Image - UC Berkeley
In an effort to enhance literacy in rural India, Aarti Sethi, a professor of anthropology at University of California, Berkeley has launched an initiative to establish public libraries in the areas.
In India, the absence of a centralized national public library system has resulted in marginalized communities having restricted access to fundamental educational resources. To address the disparity, Sethi had collaborated with the Free Library Network, a collaborative initiative advocating for the establishment of a comprehensive public library infrastructure across the nation.
Through the libraries, Sethi aims to provide access to literacy and knowledge, thereby opening doors to education in these communities. She and her longstanding collaborator, Indrajit Labhane of the Free Library Network, inaugurated the first community library in a rural village of Maharashtra, a western state of India.
The inaugural library project yielded swift and profound effects. According to a report on UC Berkeley website, within a mere two-month span, the library garnered approximately 200 members, predominantly children, underscoring the community's eagerness for education and enlightenment.
Additionally, the library has also cultivated a communal space conducive to learning and advancement, particularly benefiting first-generation readers.
"The joy of watching a child open a book for the first time in a library is indescribable," Sethi said. "A library is not just about reading; it's about opening doors to a world of possibilities that were previously inaccessible. I think what is so moving to me is to watch children travel with their imagination. A library says that you can be a child in a small village in central India and yet the whole world is open to you to think with, to travel in, to discover through books."
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