Republic Day 2023: Uttarakhand's first theme village library ready for inauguration

Bina Negi Mishra played a pivotal role in transforming remote Maniguh into Uttarakhand's first village library, set for inauguration on Republic Day. She quit her plum job in a multi-national company in Delhi and returned to her native village - Banjgaddu - with a firm resolve to develop theme villages in Uttarakhand so as to solve the problems of educational backwardness and unemployment.

Rudraprayag (Uttarakhand): Resolved to do something back for her native place, she quit her plum job in a multi-national company in Delhi and returned to her native village - Banjgaddu in Uttarakhand. Bina Negi Mishra immediately set about implementing her ideas of forming theme villages to tackle problems like lack of educational facilities, unemployment and migration.

Negi's efforts turned Maniguh, located near her ancestral village in Rudraprayag district, into Uttarakhand's first library village. She is now trying hard to transform it into India's first ideal library village by adding all the necessary facilities. Already, over 4,000 books are made available in the library. Every house is given access to books relating to different subjects. Special programmes like 'mobile book temples' and digital presentations are planned.

For this, Bina Negi Mishra formed an organization called 'Hamara Gaon-Ghar Foundation' with support from her husband Suman Mishra and two local youths Alok Soni and Rahul Rawat. The organisation aims at creating an atmosphere in villages where employment and education can be promoted by attracting people from big cities.

The library village work is almost complete and it will be duly inaugurated on the forthcoming Republic Day that marks the auspicious Basant Panchami. Bina Negi Mishra, who did MBA, worked for sometime as a senior manager in a multinational company in Delhi. She discussed with colleagues on how to transform the villages of Uttarakhand where lack of basic facilities and education remained a concern.

Negi decided that the villages of Uttarakhand can be developed into theme villages with a little effort. As part of this, Maniguh village is made the first library village of the state. Apart from a central library here, there will be arrangements for reading at various places. Rare books and some manuscripts will be made available in the central Library. Apart from smart classes, children will also be given computer education.

Books on various subjects as well as text books necessary for the preparation of various competitive examinations will be available in this library. Since Uttarakhand is the land of pilgrim sites, these youths have also planned 'mobile book temples' to take the library door-to-door in this village, which is the first of its kind in India.

Books will be kept in these small temples. These will be used as reading spots. These temples will also be ready by December. In this way the library village will be developed like a 'book pilgrimage', which will be a new attraction for the tourists. Bina Negi Mishra said that she got this inspiration from Pustakanche village located in Maharashtra. Her firm belief is that reading is a culture, which develops gradually and a library becomes a part of your personality.

On January 26, a three-day program has been planned - inauguration ceremony, village tour and digital presentation of folk drama, followed by screening of Santosh Rawat's short film Patal Ti along with Kavi Sammelan and discussion on January 27, Kartik Swami 9-km trekking from Maniguh and night stay on January 28.