Navi Mumbai‘s slums will soon house ten libraries to make books easily available to slum residents, especially school children and youths, and encourage them to take up reading. Work on six of these libraries is complete and the remaining four are to be completed by new year, stated Engineering Department, The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC).

The Constitution of India, under article 21-A provides free and compulsory education to all children in the age group of six to fourteen years as a Fundamental Right. It is good to see how the administration of Navi Mumbai under it‘s initiative “Library in Every Slum” is working to at least give people access to knowledge and instill in them the habit of reading.

Before commencing the project, the Social Development Department of NMMC carried out a detailed survey on the locations most befitting for the upcoming libraries. Following this, NMMC picked-out 10 out of 41 slums in the city. The 10 slums that were chosen for the first phase are Indiranagar, Hanuman Nagar in Turbhe Store area, Gautam Nagar, Panchsheel Nagar, Katkaripada, Bhimnagar, Nosil Naka, Ramnagar, Ilthanpada, and Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar.

Reading plays a vital role in the progress of any person as it provides knowledge of the world and promotes holistic personality development. Therefore, a special committee will sort out the kind of books which will be kept in the library. Keeping the interest of all readers in mind, these libraries will house books in Marathi, Hindi, and English. Best of all, the library will also hold books that would help people prepare for competitive examinations.