The Bidhannagar police commissionerate has come forward to do its bit for the education of children, especially those of disadvantaged backgrounds.
"Taking inspiration from the Book Fair, our commissionerate has taken a small initiative and built a 'Boi Bari' with free access for children where they can go and study. We are also working on e-shiksha centres where computer education will be given free, especially to underprivileged children," said police commissioner Gaurav Sharma.
A library has opened at Thakdari, en route to Balaka Abasan from the Biswa Bangla Gate and across the road from CE Block. Attending the inauguration of the library on February 21 were local MLA Taposh Chatterjee, Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation chairperson Sabyasachi Dutta and the Bidhannagar police top brass.
The library, next to the Thakdari health centre, has about 1,500 books. "This is a reading room. There is no need to apply for membership. Anyone can walk in. But lending is not allowed,” said a lady police official, busy cataloguing the new entries.
Police commissioner Gaurav Sharma at the launch of Boi Bari.
The collection is a mix of the educational and entertaining. While there is fiction in English by authors like Ruth Rendell, Jack Higgins, Jackie Collins or Robert Ludlum, in Bengali there are classics like the complete works of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay as also pulp fiction and comics. There are also educational texts and guide books.
While Ritika Mondol, a Class V student, was happy to lay her hands on a Nonte Fonte comics, her elder brother Ronik, with whom she had tagged along, found a book relevant to the history syllabus in his school and settled down. “I had heard of the opening of the library in school. I come to this area for tuitions. So I came over to check out the stock,” said Ronik, the son of a delivery boy for an app-based food order aggregator who stays in CE Block. For both, it was the first experience of a library. “This is the first time I am holding a text book in hand. We make do with notes given in school,” said the Class IX student.
Snehasish Bhattacharya, a Rabindra Palli resident who offers tuitions in mathematics and science to school students of the area, was delighted to step into the room. “Such a reading room was really needed in this area. This shows a really caring face of the police.”
A computer class underway at the e-Shiksha Kendra being run at the Bidhannagar North police station.
In an adjacent room, computers have been installed. Classes are supposed to start once a teacher is appointed. Such computer classes are already under way in what is being termed 'e-shiksha classroom' at Sukhobristhi in Action Area III, in Salt Lake and in Dakshindari.
The Salt Lake centre is operating on the first floor of the Bidhannagar North police station since . “We already have 20 students registered,” said Aparna Sarkar, one of two teachers teaching students the basics of Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, the internet and email. “Most of our students come from Duttabad.”
Ankita Das and Sudeb Ghatak learnt about the class from a policeman who came to make the announcement in Duttabad. “We had been taught a few things about computers by an NGO. This opportunity is helping us revise that knowledge,” they said.
The book section, drawing heavily on donations in kind from block associations and individual residents, has not been opened yet.
Additional reporting by Showli Chakraborty
Pictures by Sudeshna Banerjee.