"Mini-Library" At Manipur Relief Camp A Huge Success Story Of Youth Power

A group of young people installed three metal shelves filled with some books at a relief camp in Manipur in July 2024. They called it a "mini library". A rectangular plywood table, unpainted, and some plastic chairs served as the reading area in the centre of the otherwise spartan room.

Nearly a year later, from a few textbooks like IIT JEE Physics, Chemistry, Biology, NEET sample papers and NCERT titles, the mini library has grown larger with books donated by the public.

The small room at the relief camp that housed the three metal shelves sees more visitors, most of them students, today.

"We formed the group in April 2024 to help students living in relief camps with books and any skill matters that would be within our ability to train or provide," a member of 'Youth Connect - The Champion for Change' (YCC) told NDTV.

"It has been over a year, and looking back we are glad we took this up ourselves," the YCC member said, adding many of the members are PhD students and candidates of competitive exams.

The library has approximately 500 books at present, another YCC member said.

A majority of them are textbooks of all subjects for Classes 9 to 12, some sample test papers for Staff Selection Commission (SCC), Joint Entrance Exam (JEE), National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), etc. There are few novels.

The YCC handed over the responsibility of running the mini-library and day-to-day tasks to a small team comprising students living at the relief camp in Imphal West district's Lamboi Khongnangkhong. In the meantime, the YCC reached out to the public with information about the initiative.

While some came forward to donate used books, others bought the latest textbooks in bundles and donated them.

Members of 'Youth Connect - The Champion for Change' (YCC) who are running the mini-library at a relief camp in Manipur's Imphal West district

Independent filmmaker and Manipur University of Culture assistant professor Meena Longjam was among those who visited the relief camp to donate books. The titles she gave included 'Wings of Fire', the autobiography of former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, and 'Great Stories for Children' by Ruskin Bond.

YCC said the mini-library works as a community-based bookshelf from where students can borrow books and study material, and in the process help in creating a positive vibe and give hope.

They have also regularly held play sessions, football games, and other activities for children living in relief camps.

The ethnic violence in Manipur that began in May 2023 led to the displacement of at least 50,000 people. The clashes killed over 260.

Thousands from the Meitei community and the Kuki tribes are still living in relief camps across the state.

While the government has from time to time announced the steps it has taken to help internally displaced persons (IDPs), individuals from both the affected communities have taken it upon themselves to help as many IDPs as possible by forming small coordination groups.

The scale may not be large due to limited resources; however, many small groups whose members are mostly common working professionals have shared success stories of their interventions despite their busy schedules and work commitments, such as funding the education of a few meritorious students outside the state, providing scholarships for higher studies, etc.

For YCC, the latest milestone happened when a Shillong-based graphic design firm took interviews of candidates at the mini library on May 26.

From three thin shelves of textbooks, the mini library at the relief camp in Imphal West has come a long way, but still has a ways to go for the shelves to run out of space.