Why Punjab needs a public library law, urgently

HAVING visited the rich public library in Agatti Island, a speck of land measuring 3.2 square km in the Arabian Sea, I often wonder about the social impact of libraries and what a library brings to the community. <

In addition to being knowledge centres, public libraries are quiet spaces of reflection, where the public spends time in the company of great ideas at no or nominal cost. Libraries are antidotes to crime, violence, addiction and mindless pursuits.

Guess how many public libraries are there in Maharashtra, Kerala and Karnataka? The answer is 12,191, 8415 and 6,798, respectively. And in Punjab, the number is…? It is just 15. It is even a fraction of the numbers in Nagaland (622), Mizoram (506) or Goa (136) — all states smaller in area than Punjab.

How do we explain or justify the fact that we as a community have failed to provide several generations access to ideas, wisdom and all that is good in the world? No wonder our youth have spent their leisure time in dens of drug addiction or fled to greener pastures.

Literature and culture are mutual enablers. No wonder, we have lost the finer nuances of our culture.

Not that the state did not have a vision for this. In 1948, the Punjab Library Association (PLA) initiated the idea of creating a network of public libraries across Punjab by enacting a legislation.

Then, for the next 77 years, despite the PLA's efforts, due to political and administrative apathy, the idea of the Punjab Public Libraries Bill has done the Rip-van-Winkle act, with a brief wake-up moment in 2011, when the draft of the libraries Bill was prepared and approved by a committee, but the Bill was never passed by the Assembly.

Harinder Pal Singh Kalra, president of the PLA, says that the association has been constantly making efforts in this direction, meeting ministers and raising the issue at relevant platforms. However, their efforts have been stonewalled as no government, irrespective of the party background, is interested in bringing in the Bill.

In the absence of a legal framework, an organised system of libraries comprising Central and state libraries as also libraries at the district and block/town to village levels cannot be established. Nor can the formation of governing bodies to run and maintain functional operations be maintained, grants and funds procured and modernisation or digitisation be facilitated.

The existing 15 public libraries in Punjab are in a state of neglect. They are understaffed and reflect the apathy of the authorities concerned. The libraries in the states that have a legislative framework get handsome funds and professional assistance from the Raja Ram Mohun Roy Library Foundation ( RRRLF), Kolkata, West Bengal.

The foundation is a central autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. It works as a promotional, advisory, consultancy and funding body for public libraries’ development in India.

The first state to pass the public libraries Bill was Tamil Nadu, which cleared it in 1948. Telangana passed it in 2015, soon after becoming a state in 2014. Both these states, along with 17 others, are beneficiaries of the RRRLF schemes.

However, Punjab cannot become a recipient of the foundation's grants till it enacts the public libraries Bill.

The cost of this apathy is huge and the public is paying it by losing the battle to base instincts, materialism and commercial pursuits and erosion of finer sensibilities. Had robust libraries been set up, the intellectual potential of the public in general and the youth in particular could have been evoked to reap unimaginable tangible and intangible benefits to the state and community.

The lack of political will and administrative apathy to prioritise the Bill for public libraries reflects the poverty of vision of the people at the helm of affairs. Though civil society has time and again been demanding that the Bill be brought back from limbo, the demand has not been consistent or loud enough.

Meanwhile, examples of the success of personal efforts by some individuals like ML Garg, a retired engineer from the Irrigation Department who has started a library movement in Punjab by establishing small libraries in places like Lopon in Moga and Maur Mandi in Bathinda, present robust evidence that there is a dire need for libraries even in this social-media crazy world and a drug-addiction battered state. People throng these libraries and many students give them credit for being the catalyst for their success in academics and competitive examinations.

A 2014 research by Andy Porter of the University of California finds statistically significant reductions in certain crimes when libraries are open for long periods of time. This paper is widely cited as causal evidence that library availability reduces some types of crime.

Another study done by Neto, Nowicki, and Shakya (2021) compared areas before and after a new library branch was opened. It also compared nearby-versus-farther-away zones. The study found that opening a public library branch is associated with reductions in certain types of crime in areas near the branch — specifically burglary, vandalism, robbery, fraud and assault.

Research findings by Zager et al, published in the Health Information and Libraries Journal in 2016 have lessons for Punjab.

The research records associations (not randomised causal estimates) between higher library use and lower odds of smoking and drug use, higher quit rates among smokers and lower reported depression/ anxiety in some analyses.

That in a state where the 'Granth' is revered as the supreme 'Guru', it is ironic that the public has been denied free access to the enriching and powerful benediction of books through public libraries.

Jayanti Dutta is Professor and ex-Senator, Panjab University.