The public library of Pahari village, Haryana has 13,000 books. She helped Vivek Singh get into IIT Dhanbad and that’s where Tejashwini is preparing for JEE Main 2025.
New Delhi: For Nikita Yadav who hails from Khetavas in Haryana, the library of Government Senior Secondary School Pahari is six kilometers away. Yet, every day, after sending his child to school, Yadav rides his father-in-law’s bike to the library.
Government Senior Secondary School Pahari’s library is unlike other government schools. Set up in 2019 with the help of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi Alumni Association, it has air-conditioned rooms, separate sections for men and women, eight computers, printers, 13,000 books, and Wi-Fi. . The library is an important addition to the hill village, which has a literacy rate of only 73% and a female literacy rate of 31.1 as per the 2011 census.
For Nikita Yadav, 28 and preparing for Haryana’s Teacher Eligibility Test, the library provides free access to information that would otherwise be too far away or too expensive.
“We have become financially stable recently. So, I thought if I can work, I can support the family more,” Yadav said. “Now that my child is old enough to go to school. Being old, I can start looking for jobs. The library provides a quiet place away from home business. Here, I can prepare and stick to a schedule.
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The library has already made an impact. According to villagers’ estimates, about 20 residents who frequented it were able to get into various government jobs in Haryana. Some students who used it even got admission in Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and National Institute of Technology (NIT). It provides an inspiration to the rest of the aspirants of the hill and surrounding villages.
Alumni of IIT Delhi
The library was established thanks to the efforts of the IIT Delhi Alumni Association led by a villager himself, Vinod Kumar Yadav, an alumnus of Government Senior Secondary School, Pahari. He later went on to pursue his MSc and Ph.D. from IIT Delhi.
Yadav said that he had a dream of a library long before joining IIT Delhi but it was this institution that helped him realize that dream.
“When I was studying in the village, I could see the difficulties. The family’s priority was to rear buffaloes and fulfill agriculture work, not education. Parents are also focusing only on government jobs. The big idea behind the library was That students start thinking about getting admission in IITs, IIMs,” said Yadav.
He believes in the “importance of a conducive environment”.
“If you provide it to them, they can fulfill their potential. Students in rural areas have potential but it is being neglected. When they see their neighbor studying and succeeding, it makes them competitive. Passion arises,” said Yadav.
As the secretary of the IIT Delhi Alumni Association in 2017-18, Yadav was able to propose several companies, including the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), to use their corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds to build a library there. Use to help. .
“The Alumni Association was the implementing agency. The funding was mainly through corporate CSR. IIT Delhi has a good reputation so people believe in the social arm. So, the proposal was accepted quite quickly. was gone,” he said.
The library was funded in two phases. First Rs 12 lakh was collected for the construction of the buildings and later ONGC gave Rs 18 lakh to complete the construction. The library was inaugurated in 2019 by the then Director of IIT Delhi, V Ram Gopal Rao.
The library even employs a librarian who is initially paid by the Gram Panchayat. Now, his salary comes through another private company based in Rewari.
A free library that inspired a village
The library has helped the job aspirants by providing books for competitive exams close to home. Most of the 13,000 books in the library were donated by private companies and focused on recruitment and NTA NEET, NTA JEE Mains and other exams.
For pharmacy student Hrithik Yadav, an SSC aspirant, this means not having to travel two hours to Rewari – the nearest city – for the same facilities. A daily trip to the hill, 3.4 km from their village Khalilpur, is more convenient.
Rajbir Singh, whose son Vivek joined IIT Dhanbad this year, said the library saved him both time and money.
“The library was really helpful. Many JEE Main books were available in the library. Otherwise, it would have cost Rs 1,500 per book. Vivek just took some online coaching and studied mostly from the library. He It has helped others as well. Recently about four or five people have got government jobs, some have cleared the NET exam,” said Singh.
Such stories also inspire students who already visit the library. Tejashwini, who is 18, and has taken a year off to focus on writing JEE Main 2025, said the stories of people like Vivek Singh help motivate her.
Yadav, who was instrumental in setting up the library, said that the Chief Minister’s office had also been approached to replicate this library system in government schools in Haryana. In 2020, Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushant Chautala announced that he would set up similar libraries in every village to ensure that village students did not have to travel to cities to prepare for competitive exams. Will have to.