SOCIAL EDUCATION, READING MATERIALS AND LIBRARIES
A. SOCIAL EDUCATION The scope of social education is comprehensive. It aims at providing education for adult population-and acquaints people with the ever-changing currents in social, economic and political life of the nation. The programme of Social (adult) education including adult literacy is the responsibility of the State Governments and Union Administrations. The Ministry of Education coordinates various programmes and provides supporting services and conducts pilot projects relevant to the programme of social education in the country as a whole.
1.1. One major step taken for eradication of illiteracy during the year under report is the starting of pilot projects on adult literacy in most of the States, with a provision of Rs. 11.25 lakh. Replies received so far indicate that the State Governments have taken action to start the pilot projects. The details about the important activities during the year are given in the following paragraphs :
2. Workers Social Education Institute, Indore.-The Institute continued to provide social education to industrial workers, consisting mainly of music, drawing, English and Hindi literacy and handicraft classes. The Mahila Kendras situated at Banganga, Pardeshipura, Nandanagar and Nehrunagar have been transferred to the Indore Mill Mazdoor Sangh and two new Mahila Kendras have been started in Jinci and Badil Gwal Toli. It has been decided to open one more Institute during the fourth Five Year Plan.
3. Vidyapeeth Programme.-The project of establishment of Vidya- peethas which was started in Mysore State with the help of Ford Foundation has been completed and six vidyapeethas were established with their assistance.
4. Standing Committee of the C.A.B.E. on Social Education.-The Standing Committee on Social Education of the Central Advisory Board of Education was reconstituted and its meetings were held at New Delhi on 6th and 7th August, 1965.
5. Assistance to Voluntary Educational Organisations in the Field of Social Education.-During 1965-66, 14 voluntary educational organisations were assisted to the extent of Rs. 96,870 for the development of their activities in the field of social education and libraries.
B. READING MATERIALS 6. Prize Competition for Books for Neo-literates.-During the year, authors of 40 prize-winning books/manuscripts under the Eleventh Prize
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Competition were paid the prize money of Rs. 500 each. Copies of some prize winning books of 8th, 9th and 10th Competitions were purchased for free distribution to Community Development and N.E.S. Blocks, Social Education Centres and School Libraries through the State Governments/ Union Administrations. Eleven translations of additional prize-winning books of the previous competitions were also approved for the purchase of 1,500 copies each during the year. 210 entries have been received for the Twelfth Prize Competition, the result of which will be announced in April-May, 1966.
7. Unesco Prize Competition for Books for New. Reading Public.-During the year, authors of 17 prize-winning books under the IV Unesco Competition for books for New Reading, Public were paid the prize money of Rs. 1,100 each. 1,500 copies of one prize-winning book were purchased during the year. Copies of other prize-winning books are likely to be purchased during the next financial year for free distribution among Social Education Centres, Community Development and N.E.S. Blocks and Libraries etc. through the State Governments/Union Administrations.
8. Direct Production of New Books.-The third volume of the popular Hindi encyclopaedia entitled "Gyan Sarovar" was published by the Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting during the, year.
9. Popular Literature Committee.-The Committee held two meetings to finalise the results of Eleventh Prize Competition for books for neo-literates and Fourth Unesco Competition for books for new reading public.
10. Sahitya Shivirs.-Two Sahitya Shivirs have been organised during 1965-66 in the States of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh to train authors in the technique, of writing books for neo-literates.
11. National Book Trust.-The National Book Trust was set up in 1957 and now functions as an autonomous body with the object of pro- ducing and promoting the production of good literature and to make such literature available to the public at moderate price. The Trust has taken up the publication of the series of books namely : (1) India-the Land and People; (2) National Biographies; (3) Popular Science; (4) Outstanding Books of the World; and (5) Popular History Series. It is proposed to bring out books in the above series in all the Indian languages besides Hindi and English.
11.1. Under the Series "India-the Land and People" 50 titles have been selected after consultation with the Board of Honorary Editors in the different fields and the assignments have been made to competent authors.
11.2. The Hindi translations of the "Flowering Trees" and "Assamese Literature" are under print. The other manuscripts are also at, various stages of preparation.
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11.3. In the National Biography series a tentative list of 80 titles has been prepared, to be expanded further to 100 or more. The fields covered are Religion and Philosophy, History and Social Work, Literature, Art and Music and Science. Biographies of Political Leaders will also be included. Assignments of about 25 titles have been finalised. The first book "Biography of Guru Govind Singh" by Dr. Gopal Singh under the series is going to the Press shortly.
11.4. Under the 'Popular Science' series 3 manuscripts have been prepared by the C.S.I.R. It is now proposed to assign more titles to outside authors directly by the Trust.
11.5. In the series "Outstanding Books of the World", a set of 34 books has been selected for being translated into various Indian languages. The number will be expanded to 100. Since the books under this series are not likely to be sold in the open market, a scheme to get the books published in cooperation with the publishers by subsidising their publication is being worked out.
11.6. Under the "Popular History" series it is proposed to bring out a "Popular History of India" in 2 or 3 volumes and about a dozen books on history of those countries which have either influenced or were influenced by India in one way or the other.
11.7. Besides the publications covered under these series, the Trust has released twelve books during the year so far in addition to 108 books already published previously. A list of publications brought out by the Trust is given in Annexure V.
12. Exhibition and Seminars.-The First National Book Fair proposed to be held at Bombay in April, 1966 had to be dropped owing to emergency. It is now proposed to hold the book fair by the end of 1966.
12.1. The Trust has organised the National Hindi Book Exhibition at Lucknow from February 24 to 28, 1966. From there the exhibition will move to Banaras, Patna, Allahabad, Jabalpur, Bhopal, Jaipur and Chandigarh. About three to four thousand selected Hindi books published during 1964-65, will be displayed at this Exhibition.
12.2. It is also proposed to hold a seminar on Hindi publishing and its problems during the Exhibition Week at Lucknow. About 50 delegates from different organisations are being invited to take part in it.
12.3. To further strengthen the activities of the Trust, an allocation of Rs. 30 lakh is proposed during the fourth Five Year Plan in addition. to its normal expenditure.
C. LIBRARIES 13. The Union Government maintains and develops some libraries of all India importance, like National Library, Calcutta. It also carries out programmes for developing library services to foster literacy. In addition,
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Central Secretariat Library functioning as a part of Ministry of Education, caters to the needs of all Ministries and Departments and also carries out useful documentation of education and other literature. An account of activities of various libraries etc. are given in this section.
14. National Library, Calcutta.-The following is the progress registered during the year in its different sections :
14.1. Acquisition.-The total number of volumes accessioned. during the period was 31,170. The number of books received under the provisions of the Delivery of Books and Newspapers (Public Libraries) Act, was 18,647. 6,825 volumes were acquired through gift and exchange.
14.2. Processing.-The number of volumes fully proceessed during the period was 37,627, including publications in European and Indian languages and official documents.
14.3. Library Service.-2,81,493 readers visited the Reading Rooms. New members for the Reading Room and the lending Section were 3,413 and 1,168 respectively. Special facilities were offered to 244 research scholars for their study. 2,013 volumes were either lent to or borrowed from libraries and learned institutions in India and abroad on the basis of inter-library loan. Lending Section arranged for the supply of photocopies of research material to both Indian and foreign scholars. Reference and Research work were also continued.
14.4. Bibliographical and Reference Work.-113 short bibliographies containing 7,697 entries were compiled on the requests from readers.
14.5. Preservation of Books.-The total number of volumes (a) bound was 11,544, (b) mended was 2,501 and (c) fumigated was 2,435.
14.6. Other Activities.-An exhibition of French books on Science and Literature was arranged in November, 1965 on the occasion of the presentation of 54 French Books by the French Ambassador in India.
14.7. Publications of the Library.-A Bibliography of Indology- Volume II, (Part II) has been published.
15. Central Reference Library, Calcutta.-The Library carried on its liaison work in the world of Library on a national basis.
15.1. Compilation of Indian National Bibliography.-Five volumes of Indian National Bibliography' in Roman scripts were brought out between April to December 1965 by the Indian National Bibliography Unit of the Central Reference Library.
15.2. The language fascicules of the Bibliography, which were compiled and edited by the staff of the Indian National Bibliography Unit, were published in Bengali, Gujarati, Malayalam and Marathi by the State Governments concerned.
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15.3. The five issues of the Indian National Bibliography in Roman Script and the language fascicules of the Bibliography are expected to, be published during January-March, 1966.
16. Khuda Baksh Oriental Public Library, Patna.-The Library is being, administered by a Board of management set up by the State Government of Bihar in consultation with Government of India. With a view to declare the Library as an institution of national importance, a Bill was introduced in Parliament on the 16th August, 1965.
17. Central Library, Town Hall, Bombay.-An ad hoc committee was set up by Government of India, in order to assess the needs of the Central Library, Town Hall, Bombay in the matter of accommodation, staff and equipment etc. for a period of 5 years starting from 1966- 67. The Committee met in Bombay on the 13th December, 1965.
18. Connemara Public Library, Madras.-The Union Government has agreed to share with the State Government expenditure on the construction of additional accommodation for the, Connemara Public Library, Madras, which is a recipient library under the delivery of books and' newspapers (Public Libraries) Act, 1954, to the extent of 2/3rd of the actual cost subject to a maximum of Rs. 6.25 lakh. The remaining expenditure will be met by the Government of Madras. The State Government was authorised to incur an expenditure not exceeding Rs. 3 lakh as Central Government share during the year 1965-66.
19. Delhi Public Library.-The registered membership of the Library increased from 94,000 to 1,36,710 and the stock of books from 2,58,327 to 3,23,979. The average daily turn over of books also increased from 12,800 to 16,000.
20. Central Secretariat Library.-This library continued to render useful service to all the Ministries and departments of the Central Government during the year. The following statistics broadly indicate the volume of work handled during the year :
Accessions- Books 4,200
Documents including Pamphlets 8,302
Periodicals titles 1,030
Reference queries (nearly) 9,067
Loans 1,42,064
20.1. Nearly 25 bibliographies on several topics relating to education and also other subjects were compiled. The following publications are regularly brought out by the library :
1. Indian Education Abstracts
2. Current Educational Literature
3. Current Administration Literature
4. Central Secretariat Library
5. India and Her Neighbours.
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D. FINANCIAL PROVISIONS
Provision for 1965-66 Provision
Sl. No. Name of the Scheme for
Original Revised 1966-67
Rs. Rs. Rs.
1. Workers Social Education Institute,
Indore.
(Plan) 35,000 35,000 50,000
(Non- Plan) 32,500 32,500 30,800
2. Mysore State Vidyapeeth Programme
(Plan)
3. Assistance to Voluntary Educational
Organisations in the filed of Social
Education
(Plan) 5,00,000 5,00,000 4,00,000
4. Assistance to Voluntary Organisations
for the Production of Literature
for neo-literates.
(Plan) 25,000 25,000 Nil
5. Production or Literature for Neo-
literates.
(Plan) 60,000 2,000 1,35,000
(Non- Plan) 90,000 90,000 80,000
6. Sahitya Shivirs for training of authors
in the technique of writing for
neo-literates.
(Plan) 51,000 38,400 25,600
7. National Book Trust 6,00,000 6,20,000 7,04,000
8. National Library, Calcutta 21,34,800 21,05,000 22,76,000
9. Central Reference Library, Calcutta 2,54,800 2,52,600 2,68,400
10. Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public
Library 91,000 72,000 1,28,000
11. Central Library, Bombay 3,00,000 3,00,000
12. Connemara Public Library, Madras 3,00,000 3,00,000 3,00,000
13. Delhi Public Library, Delhi 10,51,000 10,51,000 11,00,000
14. Institute of Library Science 10,000 1,00,000