Shergaon, a small village in Arunachal Pradesh, is home to a non-profit organisation called Garung Thuk that works towards development and empowerment of local communities. Lobsang Tashi, a research scholar, and Dorjee Khandu, deputy chairman of Gurun Thuk, are part of the core team that launched a community library here in 2015 with the help of Pratham Books — the first of its kind in the West Kameng district. The chief guests at the inauguration were children from primary schools instead of celebrities or political figures, and this is only one of the many fresh ideas Garung Thuk has to arm locals with knowledge. Excerpts from a conversation:
How did the community library fit in with the developmental work Garung Thuk is doing?
Garung Thuk was formed to work towards developmental aspects of village life, where sub-groups look into various subjects of rural development — an agri- and allied group. We work on education for heritage, tradition, culture and so on. Most of the members are first-generation learners and we’ve been able to put our education to good use. Hence, the library was a natural initiative. Children seemed to be losing touch with books and we knew that inculcating reading habits with quality books would help them explore the world beyond, encourage creative thought and make them better citizens.
When did you launch the library? Is it just in Shergaon?
The Garung Thuk Community Library was launched on October 4, 2015, exactly a year after the organisation was formed. The library is the first of its kind. Since Garung Thuk was set up in Shergaon, the library came up here. As time goes by and resources grow, we hope neighbouring villages will use this model as well. We will happily extend our experience and hopefully grow interconnected community libraries in and around Shergaon.
How did the tie-up with Pratham Books come about?
It was quite fated. Nitin Sethi, associate editor at Business Standard at the time, visited Shergaon in 2015 for a story and introduced us to the folks at Pratham Books. They contacted us later, for a crowd-sourced campaign for this library. Due to generous donors, we raised ₹45,000, which gave us a huge sense of support and encouragement. We got books from IT Nature Trust Bangalore, and some from as far as New York, even. We are always awed by these gestures of humanity.
Children inaugurated this library?
The trend is to invite celebrities, politicians or film stars to inaugurate a new venture, but in the midst of all that fuss, its very importance is be lost. Children are the main beneficiaries of the library so it was best they inaugurate this space. This also ensures a life-long emotional attachment, which can only help in the growing of this initiative, and in other Garung Thuk work. Even when the Sherdukpen Tradition House Museum was inaugurated by a local women’s group, they kept it simple and prayed for us instead of delivering long speeches. That was an amazing feeling.
What sort of impact has this library had?
Parents bring their children here, who sit and read at leisure, and it’s wonderful to see that. We don’t have a full-time librarian right now, so sadly, children need to leave abruptly at times when no one is available to man the place. But they understand these constraints. We have requested schools in Shergaon to have a library period when children can come in and read. The vision is to have a fully functional, vibrant library building, and to start similar initiatives in neighbouring villages.
What other initiatives does Garung Thuk work on?
Garung Thuk was established on October 4, 2014, by a group of like-minded educated youth. This organisation works with (and under consultation of) the traditional village council where every registered household is a member. We are a non-profit organisation where every villager contributes time for social activities led by core members. Everyone plays an important role in the development of their village. Unless everyone comes together for one vision, no society can be beautiful.
This is a small tribal community, where we are a part of each other’s lives so finding like-minded people was not at all difficult. Community life is still very strong in Shergaon. Many members were working in individual capacities for the village in any case, so an organisation just became an extension of that, with a better-structured platform.
Garung Thuk is very proactive in the conservation of biodiversity. The organisation adopted a stretch of River Choskorong Kho in Shergaon for five years for riverine ranching . We monitor it often so that there is no anthropological activity. There has been a complete ban on the felling of trees and quarrying in that stretch for two years now.
There’s also a programme on the Asiatic Black Bear, endemic to Shergaon.
Read about our workshop on traditional conservation methods.
The organisation is working on promoting eco-tourism and creating alternative livelihoods for villagers. This has become one of our focus areas.
Why not get involved? Visit Garung Thuk's work on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/758967510881909/
As told to Sejal Mehta
