Children of Mizoram are now reveling in the page-turning Little Library initiative
Lalhruaitluanga Chawngte, an Aizawl resident, was anxious when he built a bookcase connected to his home’s roadside compound wall in November 2019. Nonetheless, he pushed on with the Little Library because he wanted to encourage youngsters to read. He started the library with 35 volumes he had, largely for leisure reading.
According to Chawngte, he was inspired to start the Little Library after reading about similar libraries in the United States and Europe. Now, two years later, the Little Library in Aizawl has expanded to over 20 villages across Mizoram. The library presently boasts over 1,000 volumes, all of which were donated by friends and well-wishers.
“As a citizen, I wanted to contribute to society, and as the author of three novels (in Mizo), I could think of no better method to reintroduce the practice of book reading,” Chawngte says. Children have lost contact with the pleasures of leisure reading. When I first opened the library, many interested passers-by merely looked at it and walked away. However, I was overjoyed to see schoolchildren dropping by to check out the books on the shelf within a day."
