Rural Panjab Libraries Gain Popularity

Rural Panjab is experiencing a quiet revolution with the surge in libraries and reading rooms across villages, offering students—from aspirants of govt. jobs to Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) candidates—a cost-free, dedicated space to study. One example is Lopon village in Moga, where a community-run library facilitated by Manpreet Sharma, who secured the 83^rd rank in the 2023 UPSC reserve list. In Bathinda’s village Maur Kalan, another library launched in 2015 has helped local youth gain computer skills and now aims to start English-speaking courses. These examples reflect a broader movement: Bhutal Kalan village in Sangrur has separate libraries for men and women—one at a Gaushala (cow shed), another at a Gurdwara—so far enabling over 20 youths to secure jobs in teaching, the army, and the police. Besides privately funded libraries, village panchayats (councils) are converting old buildings into reading spaces. Mansa, for instance, renovated a dilapidated structure last year into a free library where around 50 students gather daily. The state govt. has also revived 114 rural libraries under the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, with 179 more in the pipeline. Activist Makhan Lal Garg, who leads the Punjab Library Movement, underlines that many rural libraries operate without trained librarians—often staffed by caretakers earning INR 5-10K monthly. Meanwhile, the Unified District Information System for Education Plus 2023-24 report reveals, for the first time, private schools now enroll more students than govt. schools. Of the total 5.9M students from pre-primary to Class 12, 2.9M are in private schools, compared to 2.8M in govt. institutions. Panjab education minister Harjot Singh Bains noted that around 70K ‘ghost admissions’ were recently removed from govt. records, contributing to the drop in govt. school enrollment.