“I will come and inaugurate your 25th library,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised 12-year-old Akarshana Sathish, who is on her way to set up her 11th library. On his recent visit to Telangana, the PM appreciated this student from Hyderabad Public School, who has taken it upon herself to increase the number of public libraries in the state. Till now, she has collected 7,008 books and set up 10 libraries in Telangana and Tamil Nadu.
Akarshana stumbled upon the opportunity to build a library in 2021 when children undergoing chemotherapy at a city hospital requested her to bring colouring books to kill time. She had visited the hospital with her father to distribute food during the Covid pandemic. She shared a message in her residents’ welfare association (RWA) WhatsApp group to donate used books. To her astonishment, she received hundreds of books within two days. How could she give the books a nice home? That is when the MNJ Cancer Children’s Hospital opened a spare room and asked Akarshana to keep the books there for the kids.
After she set up the first library in this way, there was no looking back. Akarshana set up the second one at Sanath Nagar Police Station, the third at Gayathri Nagar Association, Borabanda, the fourth at Juvenile & Observation Home for Girls in Hyderabad, the fifth with Coimbatore City Police Street libraries, the sixth at Chennai Boys Club in Nolambur Police Station, and so on.
When the Prime Minister came to Telangana’s Jagtial city recently, it was said that he would talk to Akarshana for only 10 minutes. However, they ended up chatting for 23 minutes.
“The PM was impressed by what I had done, and he promised that he would be there to inaugurate my 25th library. He said that he always believed that a village must have these five things: a post office, a railway station, a school, a hospital, and a library. He recalled spending long hours in a library at Vadnagar, his hometown,” Akarshana told News18.
The youngster was mentioned in the 105th episode of the PM’s Mann Ki Baat radio programme. She also had the opportunity to meet the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, during her winter sojourn to Hyderabad in December 2023. The President appreciated her efforts to set up community libraries.
After this interaction, she began receiving calls from all over the city from residents who wanted to donate books for her endeavour. The National Book Trust has promised to donate books for her 25th library. The prime minister’s office has already donated 2,000 books. Recently, she found a place in the India Book of Records for her passionate work.
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