Budget Applied for : - Rs.1,27,500

Budget Proposed to AID: - $3200

Introduction:

TNSF a well known people's movement has initiated a library program 
in approximately 50 blocks (1500-2000 villages) in Tamil Nadu.  TNSF, 
which was started in 1980 as a forum for scientists is no stranger to 
the field of education.  Inspired by the success of literacy 
campaigns in Kerala TNSF successfully spearheaded a similar movement 
Arivoli, in many districts of Tamil Nadu.  After the Arivoli 
experience TNSF realised there was a lacuna in the field of good 
affordable tamil books for neo-literates and children.  

It is this gap TNSF hopes to fulfil through its village library 
program.

OBJECTIVE:

To fil the lacuna in the field of good, affordable tamil books for 
neo-literates and children. Also simultaneously use the books
to educate the villagers on issues of health small enterprises, 
science education natural resources and promote ideas of empowerment. 

Project report is unavailable at the moment. Please Contact AID for more information

Summary:

TNSF (Tamil Nadu Science Forum), a NG) group based at Tamil Nadu has 
started a librart project in Tamil Nadu.  Association for India's 
Development (AID) has joined hands with TNSF in getting this library 
project started in 1500 villages spread over 50 blocks in Tamil 
Nadu.  AID State College and Boston, have approved a project proposal 
to this effect in June 1999.  These two AID chapters have agreed to 
share the project cost (Rs. 127,000) equally.  A check for $2190 has 
been sent on August 2, 1999 to Balaji Sampath, the project contact in 
India.  This money is used for subscribing "Thulir" (bud) a 
children's magazine.  The villagers are encouraged to join this 
library for a small fee.  This fee is to be used to buy books in the 
future.

Brief:

TNSF a well known people's movement has initiated a library program 
in approximately 50 blocks (1500-2000 villages) in Tamil Nadu.  
TNSF which was started in 1980 as a forum for scientists is no 
stranger to the field of education.  Inspired by the success of 
literacy campaigns in Kerala, TNSF successfully spearheaded a similar 
movement Arivoli in many districts of Tamil Nadu.  

After the Arivoli experience TNSF realised there was a lacuna in the 
field of good, affordable tamil books for neo-literates and children. 
 It was a great opportunity to tap the market while simultaneously 
promoting books which would serve as a learning tool.  

The idea behind the program is simple and (hopefully) self 
sustaining. 
 Initially TNSF volunteer tries to excite interest among the 
villagers 
for a library by means of an informal session with books and story 
telling.  A response of ten-twenty villagers is sufficient to form a 
village library which can then register with the central office for a 
payment of Rs10.  A one time registration fee of Rs10 and a monthly 
payment of Rs2  per member helps the village library to order books 
from the main office.  For the initial round, to help encourage the 
movement the libraries get a free one year subscription to Thulir (a 
children's science magazine) Magalir Sinthanai (women's magazine) and 
Arivu-Thendral (neo-literate newspaper).  

Every 6 months the libraries have to send Rs. 120 and the center will 
send them a new set of books worth Rs. 200.  In addition to this 
minimum package the center will also send them catalogues of books, 
from which they can order more books (by an extra payment). 

The 6-monthly packages will be standardised - they will contain about 
30 books - 20 story books (each with about 2-3 stories), about 4-5 
books on educational topics (like health, natural resource management 
legal issues for women etc.) and about 4-5 books on enterprise skills 
(Animal Husbandry, Sericulture, etc.). 

The project was jointly reviewed by Penn State and Boston chapters 
with each contributing fifty per cent of the total funds.  

Specific Financial Support Requested From AID 

Thulir subscription costs for 1500 libraries for 1
      year
                                           Rs.  90000
      5 Health books for 1500 Libraries
                                           Rs.  37500
      Total funding requested from AID
                                           Rs.127500

Modifications:

Nil

Questions:

 Will the program be self-sustaining after the first year of support?
 What arrangements have been securing a physical infrastructure (a
reading room) in each village?
 Does the program have a track record of success?
 If not would it be sensible to start off with a small number of
villages and then extend the concept to other villages?
 Is there any reason for TNSF to have 1500 villages for
 this project?  In other words how did TNSF arrive at this number
(break-even point)?

 Can we circulate the books among  the libraries (instead of getting 
 1500 copies of each book can we buy less number of copies say 500,  
and
circulate among the libraries)?  Since TNSF has a wide and well 
established network in these 1500 villages transporting books should 
not be a problem.
 Is there going to be some sort of plastic wrappers for the books to
keep them intact?

 How about the quality of health books and others?  Are they good?   
Did you get a chance to read them?  Some members in AID Penn State  
had concerns about Thulir?  How is Thulir?  Is TNSF trying to revive  
the magazine through this
 project?  Please let us know your assessment of these books.

Answers:

Since the project was a joint review questions from both chapters are 
included

Set of questions asked by State College

Will the program be self-sustaining after the first year of
support?

The programme is by nature not dependent on external funding for its
running.  Only the books for the first set are subsidized and this 
subsidy is what the proposal is for.  The rest of the books are paid 
for by the village.  Whether the villagers want to continue by giving 
the Rs. 120 every 6 months required for the exisitance of any sort of 
lib programme is something that we can only hope for now. Similarly 
whether we will be able to handle the demand by producing books every 
once in 6 months is also something we can only hope for now (though 
we 
are making good preparations).

Sustenence is certainly hoped for.  Will it happen ?  That's something
I would like to know as well 

What arrangements have been securing a physical infrastructure (a
reading room) in each village?

A village volunteer with a hut where she/he lives with the space (in 
her heart) for keeping a set of 30-40 books which will constantly be 
in circulation is the only arrangement needed.  The physical space to 
keep about 30 small booklets and a notebook to maintain who has taken 
what is all that is needed as infrastructure.  Big bldgs with lots of 
books is not the lib we are thinking of - small lib which are used 
effectively is more in the direction of what we hope to achieve.

Does the program have a track record of success?

A few places - about 10-20 - we have started libraries and the 
response was
good.  I went myself and tried to start several and it is quite easy 
- 
the
books sell the lib themselves...  we need to advertise little.... if 
we
choose the right age group to focus on - teenage and 5th-9th class 
children
+ school drop outs with some fluency in reading + a few enthusiastic
neo-literates.

If not would it be sensible to start off with a small number of
villages and then extend the concept to other villages?

Then can't be viable nor self-sustaining -  how can one print books 
for 10
libraries ?  The voluntary enthusiasm and motivation required can be
generated only is the programme is on a large scale.  the 
self-sustanence
for the project is also crucially dependent on the scale.  Small 
vilage
libraries have been tried before (even I have myself tried it through 
the
Taramani volunteers) and it works well as long as external push and 
inputs
in the form of constant monitoring and support + fresh books keeps 
coming.
The question is whether this can be taken on as a large programme 
which runs
on its own - that is something this project will try to address.

Members would like to evaluate the quality of Thulir and the BGVS book
for content and usefulness.

Does anyone there know to read Tamil ?  You can get copies of these 
books
from AId-MD Lib.  Prasad Preethi or Vaijayanti can send it to you...

Balaji Sampath may be able to monitor this project in India

Yes - can do (in fact will do).

Set of questions from Boston


What is the time frame in which the libraries are going to be set-up 
in all the 1500 villages (when will the first packet have reached al  
1500)? Are there volunteers already in these villages who have set-up 
library coordinators etc.?
And just to get an idea of the logistics how many volunteers are 
needed to cover the 1500 villages? Are they from outside the village 
or 
locals? And the 50 blocks of villages, are they spread over several 
districts? To get an idea
of the impact -- how many blocks/villages are there in TN?

This is something that can only be estimated.  My initial estimate 
was about 6 months.  But now I think the whole starting will be 
delayed bec the health programme itself is just starting now. all the 
volunteers and activists who
are being trained - 60*7=420 (new villages) + 180(old) + 500 (in KK 
and virudunagar - savings groups) = 1100 villages we will have good 
working volunteers by 6 months well trained in health and savings and 
library initiation.  We can then move into starting libraries.  So I 
estimate that the libraries will start happening in another 6 months 
time and then will take about 4-6 months to get established.  The 
rest of the libs we will start without such coordinated effort.

Volunteers are there - but not very active - this programme is to get 
them active forms teams who will functions, have coordinators 
wwho can review train and help etc.  one vol at least in each village 
is needed - the lib coordinator
health activist savings group coordinator. all locals.  the 50
blocks are spread over all districts.  Right now we have the 
proogramme on in 17 blocks (1000 vilages).  The total number of 
blocks in 
TN is 350. The total number of villages is 17000 (panchayat villages) 
= 85000 hamlet
villages.

We understand that the books will be housed with the village lib 
coordinator. There was some concern about the accesibility of the
books in such a set-up. Will there be any inhibition to borrowing 
because of that? Will all sections of the village have equal access 
to 
it?

Not all sections -  particularly the women and the dalits are what we 
are trying to reach - so it will housed there -  the upper castes 
and men will find it tougher to access but they have other sources 
and also are generally
more well off.  The young boys in the dalit part of the village will 
also be able to access it - we wont; prevent others (men or upper 
castes) from joining of course - but they won't come easily either.  
This is meant for the women who have little access to other reading 
sources - that's the primary focus.

 What exactly is the centralised system which handles all the traffic 
of books etc? Is there a full time volunteer in charge of this?

yes full-time person handling it fromk a state office.

To really ensure that the books are read, there was a suggestion that 
the lib coordinator could organise group reading sessions 
(especially with regard to the books on health, legal issues etc.). 
Is something like this being contemplated? Could some of them be 
slipped into schools at least on an informal basis?

Yes - the village women's committee on health and savings will read 
the books in joint reading sessions.   Giving it to schools maybe 
possible but can't see it happening right now - rememebr these are 
very simple books -the schools won;t like them very much - they 
are used to much "heavier stuff" - the kids will like it though :-)  
And they can certainly be part
of the lib and read it outside the school.

Relatedly, what will be the indicators of success of the effort? 
Apart from the coarse grained one of knowing how many villages renew 
their subscriptions etc.. It might be useful to have some feedback 
about how many books were borrowed. And which were the most 
popular? Will such data be collected? It could feed into the choice 
of books for future packets.

Yes - good idea -  the data will be there in the village certainly in 
their register.  But collecting it can be a big problem -  sample 
surveys can be used to get an estimate of how things are going and 
that we will do.

Are the books for future packets already printed? If so for how many 
instalments into the future?

Not all - some are printed -  only one installment into the future 
and that too not fully. Some of the books for two installmetns in the 
future are also printed - but again not all.   Basically certain 
category of books -"educational" books are kind of ready - the story 
books 
we will translate from various languages and get ready in time.

Is there scope for involving the locals to contribute to future 
packets via their stories experiences. We understand that the neo-
literate
newspaper already has a good share of contribution from the neo-
literates themselves.

yes - certainly this is possible - in fact one book in the first 
series is based on puzzles that were collected from people.

Also will regular tamil books (maybe in english too) be added to the 
lib collection in the long run as people pick up confidence in their
reading? Or perhaps local newspapers? More generally what are the 
plans for weaning neo-literates 
away from books & material geared for them in the long run? i.e  is 
there a strategy for bringing them up to normal reading levels? For 
instance as the library moves from year to year would the sets of 
books that they get also be 'tougher' in that they would require 
progressively increasing reading skill levels?

no - we are hoping that "regular" books get  neo-literatized. The 
books that kids are taught to read in schools is the main reason for 
their losing confidence to read. We are trying hard to reduce burden 
of children in schools - why burden others as well.  We believe 
that reading is for ideas great ideas we will put in right from the 
start - but in simple language.
Unnecessarily complicating the language and confusing the idea is the 
worst thing one can do for 
children or adults.  the problem with tamil language and so many 
other languages is that they want to
make it very flowery and complex - the idea is lost.   The need to 
communicate and learn can be
acheived with a simpler language and that should our aim.  We on the 
other
hand are trying to translate classics in all cultures and languages 
(already
made one version of alex halleys ROOTS) etc into simple language.  We 
hope
this will become the trend rather than the other way around.

Note that these books are tough  - in terms of the depth of ideas - 
already.
No need to make the reading tougher.   If they want to get "tougher" 
reading
books - that they will find in plenty anyway.

There seems to be a small discrepancy in the stated costs for a
packet.  While it is stated in the text of the proposal that the cost 
of the books will be Rs. 120 
(and thus will be self-sustaining if the village sends Rs. 120), in 
the budget table, the cost price of 
the books is Rs.145 (100+25+20). Is this something special to the 
first packet?

Yes - the first set is larger bec we want the lib size to be bigger 
in the
first round. Also this cost is approximate - bec once the topics are 
ready  he number of pages 
cannot be fixed - it will have to suit the book and topic and can inc 
a bit -  so the cost 
is only approximate.

Will the additional annual running cost of Rs.46,500 be borne in 
future years by CERD as well? Can you inform us a bit about CERD 
and it's activites? Also just out of curiosity: Is it a matter of 
policy for the TNSF, not to recover that cost as well from the village
subscription? The mailing costs are quite substantial. Are these at 
the non-profit discount rate?

Yes - either by CERD or by donations.  See the way we feel is this - 
we  have tried libreies before and they have failed to sustain - if 
we can actually have 1500 libraries sustaining like this then we and 
everyone else
will do everything possible to sustain it - the costs are not the 
important
thing - getting them going, having regualr supply of books and having 
people
to read it is the most important thing.  The govt is spending crores 
on each
district to stat libraires and furnishing them with books that people 
don't read.  If we can show that 
this system works - it will be an easy matter to get the support 
required to sustain it.  Also just the
120 that the villagers provide will not be enough for the book needs -
  we will then
get sponsorships for special books and provide that also -  but all 
these extras
on top of a good working structure.  So we are not worried abt these 
questions as much as we are
about whether this whole programme will work - if it does not with 
this money and needs more- we can get more.  But if it
does not work at all then the whole thing fails :-(   That's how I 
see the entire programme.