The library at Choornikkara, a village near Aluva town, reached a landmark last week when it covered 500 households as part of its novel project, ‘Aksharadeepam’, of delivering books at the doorstep in an attempt to inculcate reading habit among women and children.
The panchayat library kicked off the project, arguably first of its kind by a local body library in the State, in June by deploying 50 trained volunteers drawn from among interested Kudumbashree members. The project has set a goal of covering 800 households, which the library remains confident of attaining by next month. Choornikkara panchayat has so far funded books worth around ₹1.50 lakh as part of the project, besides setting apart another ₹25,000 for accessories such as bags for volunteers to carry books.
“The project has been very successful, and the panchayat will continue the support to the initiative. We are also looking at digitising the library using corporate social responsibility funds,” said panchayat president Raji Santhosh.
