PROJECT ORGANISERS

INDIA - BOOKLINE

The programme organiser is Booksline, a not-for-profit publisher of village reading materials published in Telugu (the language spoken in Andhra Pradesh) which operates through the SRAS Foundation. The programme will be developed and overseen by the SRAS Director and Booksline publisher, Ms Supriya Bhalerao. The coordination will be undertaken by Kavita, a member of the Booksline staff.

Booksline produces information based books and materials for the benefit of rural communities. Some of the titles include:

• Dairy Cattle Management
• Organic farming
• Growing vegetables
• Livelihoods
• Child nutrition
• Women’s Health
• Water and sanitation
• Community Health

Case studies Booksline Books:

Promoting organic farming
 “Vermicomposting” The 16-page booklet has colour illustrations on every page. The text is in Telugu, one of India’s 15 major languages spoken by the 67 million people in the South Eastern State of Andhra Pradesh. The price is rs12 (about 18 pence).

Encouraging enterprise
 “Lakshmi’s Tea Shop is the first title in a series on income generation and Livelihoods which have been produced in the Cooperative Development Foundation. This book tells the story of Lakshmi and her husband Raja who one day decides that they don’t want to remain poor for the rest of their lives. So they dream up the idea of starting a tea shop in their village. The book charts their progress in setting up their tea shop, and by the end of the story they are making a reasonably good income – and even thinking about opening up a second tea shop.

Gender issues for girls growing up
“What is a Girl; What is a boy”, written by one of India’s leading feminists, discusses some of the key issues that face girls growing up in a very traditional society where they have less access to education, health care and even food, and where they are expected to marry young and spend the next years in thrall to their husband and mother-in-law.
This well written book makes the young readers think about the issues that they will be facing in their lives, and gives them some ideas for how they might set about dealing with these. When I was in India in January, we held a reading session with 12-14 year old girls from the Lambada tribe. It was an eye-opener to see their enthusiasm for reading, but also seeing them discuss some of then issues that the book raises, which are very central to their lives. We are proposing further titles on growing up as a teenage and on marriage (early marriage is a real issue for these and many other girls).

The story of a village bookseller:
Reddappa is a 24 year old dalit (formerly called “untouchable” and still discriminated against by the upper castes). His family owns no land. All the other members of his family except himself, father, mother, two brothers and a sister, all work as labourers on daily wages. Reddappa is the only one in the family who is pursuing higher studies. He goes to a college 10 kilometres away. He was looking for a part-time job to help out his family, when he joined the Books for All Sales Scheme as a bookseller. He has been working very hard, and in 5 months with the commission he earned from selling books he has helped his family buy 2 cows (after meeting the family's needs, the surplus milk is sold), saved Rs3,000 (approximately £45) in a savings bank account, bought a second-hand bicycle so that he can save time on moving from village to village, and bought a watch to keep track of time.
“Reddappa's method of increasing sales is to “go fishing where the fish are”, by putting up bookstalls at weekly village markets, organising book exhibitions at schools for students and teachers, and displaying books at village centres after 8pm under a street light when farmers and workers are back from the fields with time on their hands. Never before had I seen a man selling books encircled by enthusiastic villagers! A toy seller, yes. A sweetmeat vendor, yes. But never a bookseller. It was a revelation Books seem to be the most convenient and affordable way to carry information to rural people. Village bookselling has in it the power to fuel social change.”

For more information on Booksline and to view their list of publications, go to www.bookslineindia.com

The UK Partner is CIVA. Charity registration number 1053659