Mridula Koshy (she/her)

Free Public Libraries in India: Defending the Right to Read India’s missing libraries limit equality and democracy. Explore how access to books can challenge inequality and why the right to read must be defended.

My article:

In the US, one oft-cited 1984 study conservatively estimated that typical middle school students read between 5,00,000 and 1 million words a year...The total number of words contained in NCERT textbooks... class VI students is roughly 2,00,000

frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/e...

Bindaas ek shaam. 50 women gathered together @tclp.bsky.social for an evening of leisure. Often the last to be prioritised in the workspace and home for rest, they read, played, watched a movie. Women at Leisure is a political act; at the library, its also fun.
Caption: DEM
📸: Shivani and Pooja

Hiring. Work for justice.

I interviewed @edrabinski.bsky.social for Scroll.

And this is why we need physical libraries India. Publicly funded. Locally owned and operated. Kerala style autonomy. Delhi where I live has one public library for every 350,000 or so people.

YouTube video by The Community Library Project DK : Palaces For The People

Books are not locked behind glass shelves in our libraries. For the youngest of our members. We are building. #PalacesForThePeople.
DK says YES to #PalacesForThePeople. You should too.
DONATE bit.ly/3zkINeZ
youtu.be/_fVh2q6Ac4c

Final Solution (2004) by Rakesh Sharma; India; 2004 For Individual/ Home Viewing only (not for institutions); PG-rated Awards: Wolfgang Staudte award (now rechristened the Golden Bear…

I’ve decided to indefinitely extend FREE online viewing of #FinalSolution, my film on #2002GujaratRiots, and the rise of Narendra Modi, now the Prime Minister of India.

Real #GujaratFiles

Do share and spread word, esp among the under-35 audiences (too young in 2002!). vimeo.com/329340055

Our beautiful library in Khirki has seen too many evictions and too much displacement of members. Please support our campaign to build a permanent building.

Calling all library practitioners and those with a stake in India reading. We are at IIC at 10 am tomorrow. RSVP at the link: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

The govt is planning changes to the public library system. We want free, excellent, anti-caste, feminist, inclusive libraries for all people

YouTube video by Peter Griffin If I must die, by Refaat Alareer

A year ago, on this day, the IDF targetted and killed Refaat Alareer.
A little later, I recorded this poem he wrote which the world knows now.
[In the recording, I say it was written on 14th October, 2023, but I later found that he had written it many years ago.]

We have to win this by being who we are, only then will the win serve us. And along the way comrades to hold us up uP UP

we went straight from lockdowns where people starved, died from chronic shortage of oxygen and hospital beds and ran out of crematorium space to receiving vaccine certificates with HIS face. Gonna take him down though.

OMG Yes! FLN is where you can find over 200 grassroots library organisation and Bansa in rural UP is where you find India reading and then there's TCLP where my heart -- well, it explodes -- every day.

We love The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste SF and cant wait for the launch @tclp.bsky.social

Alt text: A young boy sits at a blue metal desk outdoors, holding a colorful children's book and looking at the pages with curiosity. He wears a striped sweater, green pants, and flip-flops, with a brick wall and greenery in the background.

Sarthak, one of our youngest members, has embraced independent reading—not through words, but through images. His fearless imagination reminds us that reading is about creating worlds, not just decoding words.
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We need your support: pages.razorpay.com/supportfreel...

#FreeLibrary

The grassroots librarians of India have united in the Free Libraries Network to argue for free, anti-caste, publicly funded and autonomous public library system. Read here: www.fln.org.in/library-refo...

White flag with red lettering reading FREE

Wonderful time today spent with Delhi’s Community Library Project, learning how the library can be used as an organizing tool through which we can all get free. Gratitude to my hosts from @freelibsnet.bsky.social!

The People’s Library Manifesto The People’s National Public Library Policy-PNLP recognises: T h e R i g h t o f A l lP e o p l e s t o p r o g r e s s : progress of self, fraternity & society, through access to knowledge, education and information T h e R i g h t t o S e l f -D e t e r m i n a t i o n as a Reader, Learner, Thinker and Collaborator to gain freedom from oppression, inequality & exclusion T h e H u m a n P o t e n t i a l o f a l l , in building a peaceful, equitable & sustainable future, deeply rooted in our ties to the planet, its inhabitants and each other A l l P e o p l e’ s S t r u g g l e s to break the unnatural chains of caste, class, gender, sexual orientation and disability & the Fundamental Rights enshrined within the Indian Constitution according the Right To Life, Right To Equality, Right To Read, Right To Education, Right To Information & Freedom of Expression We shall build a Public Library System that upholds: ● F r e e , A n t i -C a s t e , F e m i n i s t &N o n-E x c l u s i o n a r y reading, learning & information spaces which work to remove all barriers for All Peoples ● E x c e l l e n c ei nL i b r a r yS t a n d a r d s&S e r v i c e sfor all members, in line with national & global guidelines ● P e o p l e’ sO w n e r s h i p&A u t o n o m yin determining their library’s policies, practices & programs ● T h eD u t yo ft h eS t a t eto build, support & maintain, for posterity, the Public Library of The People So that the Public Library system reaches All People with: Physical & digital books, knowledge & information resources, i na b u n d a n c e&d i v e r s i t y , w i t h o u tr e s t r i c t i o nand in line with the people’s needs & aspirations Reading Programs, Spaces, Policies & Practices that s e r v e a l l , b u t e s p e c i a l l y t h e m o s t v u l n e r a b l e a n d h i s t o r i c a l l y-e x c l u d e dp e o p l e sand to invite & include all in reading, education and information access E q u a l O p p o r t…

What is Free Libraries Network?
We are a collective of grassroots library workers and activists, who respond to the hunger of millions of un-seen, un-reached and unacknowledged readers. We are peer-support, research and action group. This is our demand, our hope and our vision.

To attend this conference, RSVP at: forms.gle/9CUBF5dPDVBi...