A series of notifications for thousands of jobs in Telangana has triggered an unprecedented interest in books, and libraries in particular. Libraries across the city have turned into beehives of activity from morning till late in the night. The lights are on at the Sri Vattikota Aluwaru Swamy Memorial City Central Library (CCL) at Chikkadpally till midnight even after most of the library staffers are back home. Among the younger lot waiting to study at the library is Prakash Noonavath, who completed his M.Tech from Vardhaman College in 2019 and is now preparing for competitive exams, including Staff Selection Commission.
“This library has a large collection of books that I need to read. If I stay at home, I feel like sleeping,” says the young man, lugging around his chair and books to find a spot of shade for studying on a hot afternoon. “When I come here, I get inspired and become aware of the competition that I am up against,” he says as hundreds of young people stay hunched over the books, listening to YouTube tutorials or trying to memorise notes.
Dozens of colourful chairs chained to windows or other chairs are lined up against the wall. While some of the students occupy the space in the auditorium, there are dozens under the shade of the banyan tree, flipping through pages. The department of Public Libraries has made a virtue out of the tragic situation with a boast about this library. “It’s a place where readers can study, or enjoy a book not only indoors, but also underneath the many trees on its premises,” says the website.
In no particular order
Inside the library, the ordering created by Dewey Decimal System devolves into chaos. The books are stacked in no particular order. Corporate Curry is next to Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, Yoga Therapy is next to Truculent Clay, and Creativity is next to a well-thumbed The Last Mughal. Literature, history, geography, science, biology books and biographies are stacked in the same rack. “We don’t have staff. I can do only so much. I cannot set all the books in order,” says the librarian inside the stack room after finishing a call on her cellphone.
To be fair, setting 2.6 lakh books in order is no mean task for a library that has only seven staffers who function as librarians. Hundreds of readers enter the room, sign with a pencil and pick up their book of choice to sit down and read. At the end of the day, the readers leave the books on the table and those make their way to the nearest shelf. With this, finding a book becomes a whack-a-mole exercise for the next reader.
With thousands of jobs being notified, young aspirants have descended on the State Central Library to prepare for competitive exams. | Photo Credit: RAMAKRISHNA G.
The situation is way better at the State Central Library (SCL), which has a massive collection of 5 lakh books and is better organised. The Aziz Ali-designed building in 1932, spread over 72,247 square yards, is grand with an amazing aura of history. On both sides of the circular table are the two wings for reading rooms. They can seat, at best, 100 people. The library is visited by about 600-800 people now. The library was built in pre-Independence India when the population of the city was a few hundred thousand. Today, the city is a teeming metropolis of over 10 million people and a few million migrants. The result: readers spill onto the lawns, parking lot, gardens and corridors.
The angst and agony of seeing a great library becoming just a walled facility for students is shared by Purna Nagula, a resident of Sircilla who compared his first visit in December 1997 to the latest one in 2022. “The textbook section which used to be full is now half empty. All the books in the section are old. The students bring their own books, own chairs; what’s the use of this library,” he wrote, making a plea for upgrading the library. Mr. Nagula, who says he spent 18 hours at the library when he first came to Hyderabad, has been inspired to start a library in his hometown with the aim to keep it open for 24 hours.
On the other side of the Musi River is the quaint Branch Library Shalibanda started by a well-meaning Maharashtrian Bharat Gunavardhak Sanstha. Founded in 1895, it later began functioning from an air-raid shelter. Now it is a stack of books. “It is a stock-taking exercise,” says a librarian at the CCL.
The library cannot be painted or repaired by the Zilla Grandhalaya Samstha (ZGS) as it is a rented place. “The intent with which the library was started isn’t being carried forward, which is terrible for the books there. When we went there, the first thing we asked was if there was a catalogue. There wasn’t one. For a functioning library, which has more than 10,000 books, a catalogue is really important. There are thousands of books piled on chhajjas (window ledges) and in piles bound together, being eaten away into dust. It gave me heartache,” says Sibghat Khan, an architecture student.
Book budget
And it all boils down to money. The department of Public Libraries was allocated ₹55.4 crore in 2021-22 and in this Budget, the allocation has gone up to ₹72.6 crore. A major portion of it goes into paying salaries and for basic upkeep. The libraries in Hyderabad should have been the richest ones with best facilities and collection of books, thanks to a revenue stream created under the Telangana Public Libraries Act 1960. Exactly 8% of the property tax collection by Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) was to be handed over to the ZGS for creating and maintaining libraries. The GHMC collected ₹1,200 crore as property tax in 2015-16. It aims to collect ₹1,746 crore in the current budget year. If the 1960 Act was adhered to, the Hyderabad libraries would get an infusion of ₹139.6 crore.
“We get ₹15 lakh per month for maintenance that includes payment of electricity bill and some basic upkeep,” says a CCL staffer.
The regular ₹15 lakh funding for city libraries became the norm after a two-day power outage in 2013, following non-payment of electricity bill, led to public outrage. Citizens who filed Right to Information applications discovered that the civic body owed dues of ₹216.5 crore in 2016. The number would have quadrupled by now.
“It is not just money. It also is about competency and professionalism. There are systems in place for getting resources. If a library is over 50 years old, there is funding for that. The Raja Rammohan Roy Library Foundation channelises funding as well as books but we are not tapping into it,” says N. Laxman Rao of Telangana Library Association. “There are millions of books that have been digitised. Students should be given access to them in libraries so that they don’t rely on a few guide books for the competitive exams,” he adds, dismissing the GHMC claim about establishing e-libraries.
The few computers that are available at the CCL are 14 years old and good for only browsing. The computers at the SCL are six years old and are used for browsing as well as accessing digitised books on CDs/DVDs.
New library
A ray of hope is provided by the new library building inaugurated near Monda Market. In the midst of the chaos of the market street, the library is a quiet haunt of book lovers. “Every day, we have some 60-70 readers who spend the day reading through the books on competitive exams. There is a space for children, and neighbourhood kids come to read,” informs Basheer Mohammed. The new library has everything going for it, except a little secret — hundreds of its books were damaged when they were stored in a shed near CCL when the building was being constructed.
Ironically, it was an extreme weather event that helped save some of the books for posterity. In August 2000, when a deluge swamped Hyderabad, one of the worst-affected places was the basement library of Sundarayya Vignana Kendram. It triggered a global effort resulting in freeze-drying of the soaked books which were later carefully dried and scanned. These books come under the copyright limit, and some beyond copyright period. They are now available online at India’s national repository as well as archive.org.
“The rollout of a digital initiative for libraries is linked to T-Fiber. Once we have that in place, gram panchayats, schools and libraries will be linked to create access to libraries,” informs Dileep Konatham, director of Digital Media for Telangana IT department when asked about the State’s plan for libraries.
