On the second floor of a bookshop in College Street, the beating heart of India’s cultural capital Kolkata, a quiet transformation is taking place.
A dusty space measuring 2,000sq ft (186m2) that was once home to Dasgupta and Co.’s accounts department and tiffin (snack) room, is being turned into a free library for students who can’t afford to buy books.
Established in 1886, Dasgupta and Co. is Kolkata’s oldest bookshop and is run by 71-year-old Arabinda Dasgupta, the latest managing director in a long-running family business which has survived two world wars. It was recently awarded Grade II listed heritage status by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
“We are the only bookshop from that time whose ownership hasn’t changed. It remains with the same family,” he told The Hindu.
Literacy in India
During the shop’s 137-year lifetime, there’s been a huge rise in the percentage of the population who can read in India. In 1951, literacy stood at just 18.3% and in 2018, that figure was 74.4%. In the four years to 2022, it was up 3 percentage points to 77.7%, in spite of the pandemic.
But that means a quarter of people still can’t read and there is a literacy gender gap, 84.7% of men being able to read, compared to 70.3% of women (the global average is 79%).
There’s also a gap between literacy in urban and rural areas, with the rate being 67.77% in more rural parts of the country, compared to 84.11% in cities, according to the Ministry of Education.
Dasgupta has seen the spread of education across the country reflected in those who visit the bookshop: “There is a sharp rise in the number of customers from rural areas. Even though the trend is very heartening, it is not always easy for them to afford books. Our library will be particularly of help to them.”
Making learning more accessible
Access to books and educational materials is essential in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Its impact on education led to a schooling loss of more than six months, on average, according to the World Economic Forum’s Catalysing Education 4.0 report.
This is projected to have a negative financial effect of a 3.9% decline in lifetime incomes and a loss of up to $17 trillion globally.
Accessible and inclusive learning is a core component of the Forum’s Education 4.0 framework, shifting from learning being only available to those with access to school buildings to learning that’s available for everyone.
Preserving history
As well as the library, the makeover of the second floor will include a space for book launches and even classes for students – as well as a museum-archive, with records and artefacts from the bookshop’s long history, including an old telephone and a Swiss wall clock.
“Many of these things belonged to my father, Amulya Chandra Das Gupta,” Das Gupta told The Telegraph India. “He had a rich collection of clocks. The 1941 telephone had been used in the shop till it no longer could be repaired.”
The renovation is due to be completed before the Hindu festival of Durga Puja this year, which runs from 20-24 October, and the library will be open from midday to 6pm on weekdays, starting with 10,000 books.