#GoodNews: Book Lover From Haryana Starts 20 Libraries in India

Joginder Rohilla collaborated with local organisations, schools and NGOs to fulfil his late brother’s dream.

Joginder Rohilla. (Photo Courtesy: Joginder Rohilla/Facebook)

All Joginder Rohilla, an engineer from Delhi, wanted to do as a young college-going lad was to sit aside quietly and read. He did have books at home, but when he would go out in search for more in his small hometown of Bahadurgarh in Haryana, he would struggle to find a library.

After landing a job at TCS, he and his brother Jitender decided to open a library in their town.

“Ours is a small town and I didn’t have any resources to start a library. However, my father was as enthusiastic as I was about the idea. Ultimately we decided to start from out of our home and Sanskriti was born,” Joginder told The Better India.

Bahadurgarh got its first library in 2007 with around 200 books which were from the brothers’ personal collection and some donated by others.

Unfortunately, Jitender passed away and their retired father joined in.

In order to fulfil his brother’s dream, Joginder decided to open more libraries across the country.

He then started collaborating with local organisations, schools and NGOs, said the article.

Bakul Foundation runs two orphanages in Bhubaneshwar where hundreds of children in different age groups reside. The organisation has infrastructure as well as manpower. We approached the authorities with our idea, ran a book collection drive here in Delhi as well as in Odisha with the organisation’s help and viola, we had a library! I got in touch with some of my friends and our core team of 7 people has managed to start 20 libraries in the last three years across India in different states like Haryana, UP, Telangana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bihar and Odisha.

Joginder to The Better India

He and his team also offer career guidance to underprivileged kids in Bahadurgarh and Delhi.