his three-year programme is housed in CMCA corners within Grama Panchayat libraries where children are empowered to choose from an array of CMCA activity cards, designed to build key Citizenship Values and Life Skills. The cards focus on self-development (resilience, goal setting, financial literacy, appreciation of arts and literature, etc.) and civic skills (gender equality, celebrating our composite culture, living in harmony with nature, working with the government to solve issues, and so on.
RDPR streamlines rural libraries to rekindle habit of reading among children thehindu.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thehindu.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Karnataka s Oduva Belaku initiative, launched during India s pandemic-related school closures last year, transformed rural libraries by adding new books, study desks, maps, bean bags and plants, and fixing electric connections. Library usage increased, especially with students, and the libraries now offer career guidance and computer classes.
The Karnataka Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department (RDPR) has upgraded 5600 grampanchayat libraries and provided computers and internet connectivity in 4000 of these. Over three million children between the age group of 6-18 years.
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MANGALURU: To ensure children stay connected with books amid the pandemic, the rural development and panchayat raj department is reviving libraries in gram panchayats through the Oduva Belaku programme, which was launched in November last year.
So far, nearly 9.7 lakh children have enrolled themselves in libraries across the state and borrowed 2.6 lakh books.
Priyanka Mary Francis, commissioner, rural development and panchayat raj department, told STOI children are the most affected, socially, emotionally and academically, by the pandemic. “Schools have remained closed and the learning that has been imparted to them for all these years is fading. In the worst case, kids are being pushed into child marriage and child labour, as reported by various media outlets. To prevent further damage, it is the need of the hour to revive GP libraries as knowledge centres of rural areas. The initiative was launched under the guidance of principal secretary Uma Mahadevan,