A group of IIT Guwahati research scholars have joined hands with Food for Thought Foundation to set up rural libraries and community centres across the northeast.
Claiming that the attempt is to transform the socio-cultural environment of the region, the group of scholars has already started setting up the community centres and libraries in the remote villages of the backward districts of Nalbari, Baksa and Karbi Anglong districts of Assam.
Bibhuti Ranjan Bhattacharjya, a research scholar at the Centre for Rural Technology in IIT Guwahati said they are planning to start with at least 20 libraries in 10 villages. Soon they plan to expand the initiative in the other states in the northeast.
The group of IIT Guwahati scholars has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Food for Thought foundation for the programme. The plan is to set up two libraries in each village to encourage the habit of reading among the rural youth.
In insurgency-ravaged northeast, rural youths are mostly unemployed, and the initiative of the IIT scholars is sure to change their mindset. The first phase of the project was inaugurated at Raitkuchi village in Nalbari district by Professor AK Goswami, former principal of Cotton College and president of Medini foundation in September this year.