Bengaluru: When Ms Laxmi Karunakaran decided to start Buguri, a community library for the children of ragpickers from nearby slums in Banashankari, bringing in children seemed like an uphill task. With about a thousand-odd books and two small rooms, Laxmi backed by her team of Hasiru Dala members, a non-profit organisation that works with ragpickers community of the city, started Buguri.
“At first, we didn’t know if children would even come. We were ready to start a campaign to get the children,” she recalled. Though they had spread the word in the community, they were still unsure. “We opened the library on January 26 and we were just setting up the place, when five children landed up asking for books. The following day, 30 of them did with all smiles. They even took over decorating.”
Along with city-based artist Poornima Sukumar, the children painted their new library wall. “It imbibed a sense of responsibility towards the space. We’ve had about 180 children coming in ever since for their library sessions. It is quite challenging at the same time, because of the different reading levels, some are school dropouts, while others are encountering books for the first time.”
The concept is modelled after a similar initiative in Delhi, she said. “Books today have become elitist and expensive. These children are far from being able to afford them. We also wanted to create a space for them to just be and think and grow on a larger level.”
Most of these children are the first generation in their family to be able to read and Laxmi and her team like to use the space to talk about gender biases and other bigger issues, she said.
Since the space can only hold about 30 children at once, they are divided into five groups. Each group gets three hours to spend at Buguri, which means spinning top in Kannada. “I know three hours a week isn’t much, but when I see the children cling on to the space and make the best of their three hour slot, it’s heart-warming.”
About 20 volunteers are part of the team, who read to the children who cannot do it themselves. The need for such spaces is dire and she hopes that in a few years more can come up. “It is a relief for them to stay off the streets, in a space where they can share what they have learnt and have fun. There is a big need for more Buguris. I hope it becomes a movement. If we see that this works we would definitely like to model more spaces after this in all 40 slums in the city.”
