Chalti Phirti
Bansa Library
A mobile library on an e-vehicle, threading through villages in Hardoi district, Uttar Pradesh — bringing books, stationery, digital access, and read-aloud sessions to readers who can’t reach a static library. A two-year partnership between TAP Charity and The Kutumb Foundation, launched October 2025.
The Kutumb Foundation.
Kutumb works on rural literacy and library infrastructure in India. Their flagship Bansa Community Library — run with knowledge partner Aruna Mithlesh Foundation — has become a four-year experiment in what a village library can be when it is built with the village, not for it.
The Chalti Phirti Bansa Library is the answer to a question Kutumb has been asking out loud: how do we reach the readers who can’t reach us?
What Bansa Community Library has done — before the wheels.
“ Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. ”
A library, on wheels, with a jingle.
An e-vehicle carrying books, stationery, three Kindles, a laptop, a Chromebook, and a tablet — moving 26-33 km a day, stopping at 5-7 villages, six days a week. When it parks, a jingle plays. Children run before it has fully stopped.
PHOTO — Children crowd the mobile library as school lets out
PHOTO — A girl reaches for a top-shelf book the village schoolEverything a static library has — but in a 55-km radius.
What happens when books arrive at the doorstep.
In September 2025 — the month before the vehicle started running — 43 books were issued. By December, the monthly count had crossed 900 — a 2,072% jump.
55 structured sessions across two quarters.
The mobile library is not a book-drop. Every village stop has a session — read-alouds, storytelling, discussions, comics, therapeutic arts, and harder conversations.
PHOTO -Therapeutic Learning Through the Arts, NayagaonThe vehicle, the villages, the readers.
PHOTO — Mobile library parked; coordinator hands out notebooks
PHOTO — Women reading during a hygiene-awareness sessionPHOTO — Read-aloud sessionIn their own words.
Selected case studies from Kutumb’s quarterly reports, in the original Devanagari and a faithful English translation.
A two-year, ₹22.46 lakh commitment.
TAP committed a ₹3.5 lakh capital grant for the e-vehicle plus ₹79,000 in monthly operations for 24 months. Kutumb runs the program; TAP reviews quarterly reports, attends quarterly check-ins, and signs off on tranches.
₹79,000 keeps the e-vehicle on the road for one more month.
US donors give to TAP Charity Inc. (EIN 87-2830776) — tax-deductible. Funds are committed quarterly to Kutumb against an MOU. Every disbursement is matched to a quarterly report with budget-vs-actuals, on-ground photos, and translated case studies.