Srinagar: In the age of Mass Communication when the inclination towards books is declining, the youths of Nowpora Jagir in this North Kashmir Baramulla District have set-up an example by started a public library on their own expense.

The library named as Dar-ul-Ilm Islamic Library was set-up this year in the month of July by the local youth of the Nowpora Jagir in one rented room by their own expense.

Unlike the government libraries, it is open to all with no money charged for membership and other services.

Divulging the details about this library, Mudassir Ahmad, a local youth of Nowpora and a founding member of this library told Agence India Press that, "We approached to the government authorities many a times to start a library in this village, but received poor response from the officials, which forced us to start a library on our own. Earlier there used to be no concept about library among the youths of this village and its adjacent areas, but now the things has fully changed and villagers fully avails benefit through this library, which witness an overwhelming response from the readers."

" We expect till end of the next year, it would be a full-fledged library at least a basic literature would be available for all subjects," says Mudassir.

Presently the library has a collection of more than 300 books on different subjects and dozens of magazines through which the residents of Nowpora and its adjacent areas avails benefit.

The local boys voluntarily carry every kind of work, from cleaning the library to bringing newspapers and other reading material from the nearby Sopore town.
Talking to Agence India Press, Rayees Ahmad, a local teacher, said, “It was our dream to establish a library in the village from my college days. Since our resources were limited and due to non-availability of space, we faced a lot of difficulties. But with the support of villagers and dedicated boys, our dream finally came true.”

“We have included Islamic literature in our library so that people get knowledge about our religion and after every week we go to the people and asks them for subscription,” asserted, member of the library, Shahnawaz Ahmad.

Firdous Ahmad, a regular visitor of this library from the past three months expresses on how library proves beneficial to him. “We read newspapers to seek the current information and with the help of this library the youth here come to know about the various government posts about which we earlier were not aware of,” he claims.

The members of the library are planning to set-up an internet services and villagers are supportive for the efforts of this group of young people. The founders of the library suggests other youths to start up a library in their areas on their own for the benefit of student community, 'rather than they would wait for a government library'.