Doorstep Library

Doorstep Library is a useful concept to reach out to the literate adults and children in the villages, to promote a 'reading culture'. It is observed that a 'Central Library' does not work in the rural set-up because of a scattered habitat – the people do not have enough time and motivation to reach such a place.

The Doorstep Libraries in an around Sonale were launched on January 26, 2011 and are operational in 4 villages.

 Each Balmitra keeps a set of 60-70 books on a variety of topics - from recipe books to novels to children’s story books to biographies of saints. The Balmitras visit the members’ houses in the afternoon. The schedule is planned in such a way that each member is visited once a week. The Balmitras have been trained to keep a proper record of the books issued to each member.

The response has been quite encouraging. The members have finished reading the first set of books and the sets have been exchanged once between the villages.

During the past few months, it has been noted that the Devotional books and biographies of famous persons are in great demand, as well as children’s story books.

In order to create more awareness among the villagers QUEST is planning to conduct book review sessions in the villages. A small book exhibition was conducted in these 4 villages on 15^th August 2011. The local people responded enthusiastically.