Bengaluru: Public libraries face underpaid staff, outdated books, crumbling infrastructure

Six months ago on a Tuesday morning, Sharada (name changed) went to the public library where she had been working for the past decade. There she found that the building had been razed overnight. The city corporation had already asked her to start vacating the premises a month before that but had given no intimation whatsoever of its demolition. “There were a few books, stationery, tube lights and fans that got destroyed,” said the librarian.

Now, as an Indira Canteen stands in place of the library, Sharada is tucked away inside a school campus with no proper approach road. “Other than school students and teachers, people hardly come here because they do not know we have shifted. There is not even a signboard to direct them,” says the 45-year-old. Sharada has not received a permanent employee status despite 22 years of service. Her library has not received new books for many years now.

Jhanvi (name changed), 28 years, oversees a larger zonal library which has about 20 walk-ins a day and well-catalogued books. She likes her job even though the library’s roof leaks during the monsoon and a little oversight can ruin the books. A wall in the reference room is also makeshift. That was damaged during the construction of the metro but was never properly repaired.


Jhanvi receives a voucher payment of ₹6,000 for her work as librarian. Precisely like Sharada. “A few months ago, there was a government order to increase our salary but it has not reflected yet. I spend over ₹1,000 for bus fare every month, which leaves me with very little to run the household,” says the widow with two school-going children. Jhanvi’s aged mother works as a housemaid to support the family.

If most of the 200 public libraries in the city echo similar stories of underpaid staff, outdated books and despairing infrastructure, others are in trouble of a different kind. Take the Indira Priyadarshini Children’s Library in Cubbon Park. Apart from being located in the same premises as the Karnataka Wine Board, the old structure is opened only at the whim of officials. According to the cleaning staff, sometimes the administrator walks in around noon, which is two hours after the official opening time, or not at all. No one even knows the name of the librarian.

No trickle-down benefits
Only 20 out of 29 states in India have passed a public library legislation since the enactment of the first such Act in India (the Madras Public Library Act, 1948). At the national level, Karnataka is considered one of the few states to have considerably large resources dedicated towards revival and development of such spaces. The state has over 6,700 public libraries. The Department of Public Libraries plans to digitise the 200 public libraries in the city. The 50,000 books in the State Central Library have all been digitised already. “We intend to go ahead in a phased manner, starting with the five zonal libraries and then moving to the smaller ones,” said Satishkumar S Hosamani, director, Department of Public Libraries. The Hyderabad Karnataka Region Development Board, which has marked ₹8 crore to set up internet kiosks in libraries, will execute the project.

The plan seems a tad too ambitious, given that libraries in the city are struggling to meet daily operational needs. According to Hosamani, “Urban local bodies have not paid library cess (of ₹333 crore) for operation and expansion in the past five years. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike owes ₹222 crore.” The non-payment of library cess, for instance, is threatening the closure of a public library in Banashankari II Stage which has over 52,000 books and is frequented by at least a hundred people a day. The rental arrears stand at ₹2 lakh.

Urban local bodies collect library cess along with property tax in their jurisdiction. The largest source of funding for libraries, the cess — 6% of property tax — is used for purchase of books and stationery, rent, infrastructure development and maintenance. This means that even though the department claims to have distributed 5,418 titles to the libraries last year, the latter might not have received copies of these books handpicked by the State-Level Book Selection Committee. “It is a challenge but for now, we are managing with the ₹120 crore allocated through the annual state budget. That goes for salaries, honorariums and other monetary compensation,” said Hosamani.

Asked about the meagre amounts of money paid through vouchers to librarians, Hosmani simply denied all knowledge of it.

BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad defended the non-payment of library cess by claiming that whenever the city corporation paid up in the past, funds were used for the development of libraries in other parts of Karnataka and not in Bengaluru. “So now, we give the department money as and when they require it for libraries in the city. We intend to make the full payment eventually anyway,” he said.

Revival as community spaces
Another oft-cited reason for the decline of public libraries is the shrinking number of visitors, especially youngsters. The latter blame it on poor infrastructure and limited reading options.

For many old Bengalureans, public libraries were an essential part of growing up. Says writer Vivek Shanbhag, “These libraries used to be places where authors met. Students frequented them as they could not afford to buy books. I discovered new literature; conversations with other people here broadened my horizon,” he said.

To ensure that technological advancement does not make people forget the oldworld charm of libraries, many circulating library initiatives have been launched in the city. “We want this to be a space where people can get together and have interesting conversations. After all, libraries are not only about reading or lending books,” said Ekta Mittal of arts collective Maraa, who has converted the reading room of her office into a circulating library.

Shubhangi Sharma, executive director of the Indian Public Library Movement (IPLM), noted that although Karnataka has shown better budgetary allocation, it lacks in planning and political will. “Officials have to stop looking at libraries as just book-borrowing spaces and librarians as bookkeepers. Utilise funds to turn these institutions into a socio-cultural community hub that live up to the new knowledge needs,” she said.

The IPLM, which engages in advocacy with governments, believes that the first step towards improving the state of public libraries would be to sort out the remuneration and cess issues and treat librarians with the same respect as education officers.