Perumkulam is Kerala’s first ‘village of books’
The Hindu
It was accorded the honour on June 19, celebrated as National Reading Day
On June 19, Perumkulam, a village in Kerala’s Kollam district, was declared a Pusthaka Gramam (village of books) by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The announcement made on June 19, National Reading Day, makes it Kerala’s first such village. At the heart of the announcement is its library, Bapuji Smaraka Vayanasala. Writer MT Vasudevan Nair first, informally, described the village thus in June 2020. Inspiration for it came from Bhilar, in Maharashtra’s Satara district, which was declared Pustakanch Gaav (village of books) in 2017. Bhilar has specially created spaces with books to encourage reading. The office-bearers of Bapuji Smaraka Vayanasala were determined to replicate it in their village of 5,000-odd people. It is a dream fulfilled for them. “In 2017, before Bhilar became a ‘village of books,’ we had placed our first public bookcase as an experiment at Radio Junction in our village,” says V Vijesh, school teacher and secretary of the library. It was formed by a group of youth, in 1948, in memory of Mahatma Gandhi. It got its own building in 1957, which was renovated in 2016 with donations collected from members of the library and locals. Writer M Mukundan is its patron.
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