Libraries for Tokai in Dhaka City: A Successful Project for Changing Lives Nasiruddin Md.1,* 1Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, National University, Bangladesh, Gazipur City, Bangladesh *E-mail id: mitulnasiruddin@gmail.com
Abstract More than 15,000 children make the streets of Dhaka their home every night. Trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty, the Tokai (street children) are amongst the most vulnerable children in Bangladesh. Tokai can be found in ferry landings, train stations, bus stations, market centres, religious shrines, parks and on footpaths. There are very few organisations which are serving for them. Concern Worldwide (one of the INGO (International Non Government Organisation) and Dhaka City Corporation have jointly come forward to support 15,000 Tokai through dedicated Tokai shelter centres, providing them with the opportunity to make their own choices for a better future. It has also established sustainable services for providing basic functional education for 1,000 children/youth and 400 adults, psycho-social counselling for 500 children and 150 adults, market-based vocational skills training for 450 children/youth and adults, entrepreneurial skills training for 400 children/youth and life skills education for 800 children/youth. With a view to this, the project decided to set-up libraries based on their shelter centres. The project realises that as of today in Bangladesh, the most poor communities do not have access to a library. This damages educational outcomes for many. The author has been appointed as a library consultant in that project. It is an amazing experience based on the demand of the Tokai; the author had to collect the resources and different audio-visual aids. At the beginning, the author had to face tremendous challenges to get their attention because most of the children of the Tokai didn't feel interest to any attractive reading books or illustrative collections. They were very much fond of watching movie, cinema, drama, cartoon, Hindi film, action film and so on. To attract them on library resources, the author has prepared and presented different video documentaries on how river erosion-affected children encouraged to read and to go to school, how sex workers children become curious to create reading habit which leads them to go to school. Moreover, for motivating youth Tokai achieving social skills on different professions (such as barber, carpenter, shopkeeper, hawker, micro-investor, cooperatives, maid labour, day labour, riksha puller, van driver etc.), short video documentaries have been made and presented on different income generating activities. Thus, libraries have turned into an integral part in the lives of the Tokai. The basic aim of the paper is to share the ideas on how a considerable number of Tokai children have been admitted in government and public schools during the last couple of years by the help of the library services. This will reveal how the youth Tokai capacity has been increased through training and library services. It will also explain a good progress in enabling better access for Tokai to basic services in education, health and legal aid through library and information services. Some interesting case studies will also be discussed in this paper. Top Keywords Community libraries, Information centre, Slum dwellers, Tokai, Dhaka city. Top |