Free Libraries For All सबके लिए मुफ्त पुस्तकालय A People's Pamphlet · एक जन-पत्रिका
ACT!Write to your CM and the PM — now.→
A NOTICE TO THE INDIAN VOTER

WHERE IS OUR
RIGHT TO READ?

so much money for statues — but none for our libraries!!!

Public libraries are in List II of the Constitution — a State subject. India spends ₹11.62 per person, per year on every public library in the country combined: states ₹9.55, the Centre ₹2.07. The United States spends ₹2,900. China — the country we are told we are "competing" with — has had a national Public Library Law since 2017. India has been drafting one for over six decades. We say we want to be a Vishwaguru. With what?

THE SHAPE OF
NEGLECT.

उपेक्षा का स्वरूप ।
India · per capita / year · all libraries
भारत · प्रति व्यक्ति
₹11.62
Empirical CAG data, peak year 2018-19. State governments ₹9.55 + the Centre ₹2.07. Less than half a Swiggy delivery fee. The price of biscuits.
USA · per capita / year
₹2,900
That is two hundred and fifty times more, paid by a country we like to claim we are catching up with.
Density of libraries
1 : 11,500
rural India · 1 library per 11,500 people.
1 : 80,000
urban India · 1 library per 80,000 people.
IFLA global norm: 1 : 3,000.
India vs the World · per capita / year

WE SPEND LESS
THAN OTHERS.

India next to the two countries we are told we are "competing" with. Per person, per year, in nominal Indian Rupees. The bar for India is so small it is almost invisible — that is the point.

Where your tax goes · आपका कर कहाँ जाता है

WHERE YOUR
TAX GOES.
NOT TO YOU.

One year · corporate tax cut · revenue forgone
₹1,45,000 CR
FY 2019-20, after the Centre cut the corporate tax rate from 30% to 22%.
Same year · every public library in India
₹1,406 CR
2018-19 peak, all states + the Centre combined.

In one fiscal year, the State forgave 100 times more in revenue from billion-dollar corporations than the country spent on every public library combined. Same Budget. Same Constitution.

Type your annual salary — आय
₹
₹3 Lakh₹50 Lakh₹1 Crore
India's middle class spans roughly ₹5–30 lakh annual household income (PRICE 2023). Below — what the Centre will allocate from your tax this year.
The Centre's receipt
Your estimated income tax this year:
₹71,500
to public libraries (Centre, all sources)
₹2.91
to telling you the State works 3× more
₹9.59
forgiven for corporate tax cut, 2019 (your share) 743× more
₹2,160

From your tax, the Centre will spend 3× more telling you it works than on the libraries the Constitution promised you. And it forgave 700 times more in revenue from billion-dollar corporations than it spent on libraries — under Articles 14, 21 and 21A.

WHAT ₹11.62 BUYS YOU, IN 2026:

Not one sip of restaurant coffee.
Not one Swiggy delivery fee.
Not one Uber kilometre.
Not three minutes of Netflix.
Not one page of your child's textbook.
Not even contempt.
State by state · राज्यवार

31 STATES.
ONE SCANDAL.

Per-capita public library expenditure, ₹ per person per year, 2020–21 — the most recent year tabled by the Ministry of Culture. Goa spends 1,400× more than Jharkhand. Both are in the same country. Both are governed by the same Constitution. Pick your state. See the scandal.

What a library actually is · पुस्तकालय क्या है

THE LIBRARY
IS NOT A
FAVOUR.

It is not a reading room conceded to the deserving by the powerful. It is not a place for engineering aspirants only. It is a constitutional infrastructure — equal to the courthouse, the school, the polling booth.

It is the gate through which the people walk into themselves.

पुस्तकालय कोई एहसान नहीं है ।
यह संविधान का बुनियादी ढाँचा है ।
Seven minimum standards · सात बुनियादी मानक
The budget is a moral document · बजट एक नैतिक दस्तावेज़

WE CAN AFFORD IT.
WE CHOOSE
NOT TO.

India's libraries are not underfunded because India is poor. They are underfunded because the State chose to spend the money somewhere else. Look at the arithmetic.

All India library spending · per year
₹1,406 CR
Empirical CAG-sourced figure for 2018-19, the peak year. State governments ₹1,156 cr + Centre ₹250 cr.
Of the Union Budget
0.03%
Union Budget 2024-25 BE: ~₹48 lakh crore. India spends three paise of every ₹100 of central budget on every public library combined.
One year · 2019 corporate tax cut · revenue forgone
₹1,45,000 CR
Revenue the Centre gave up in FY 2019-20 alone after cutting the corporate tax rate from 30% to 22% (and to 15% for new manufacturing). Recurring annually.
Of all India's library spending
103 YEARS
More revenue forgone from corporations in one fiscal year than India has spent on libraries in our lifetimes.
One year · Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) · annual avg
~₹40,000 CR
Subsidies for corporate manufacturers under PLI: ~₹1.97 lakh crore committed across 14 sectors over five years.
Of all India's library spending
28 YEARS
One year of subsidies to large corporate manufacturers ≈ three decades of every public library in the country.

This is not a matter of poverty. It is a matter of priority. The State has chosen statues, expressways, hyperscale data centres for American corporations, and tax cuts for billion-dollar companies — over the libraries the Constitution promises you under Articles 14, 21 and 21A.

A short history · संक्षिप्त इतिहास

THIS NEGLECT IS
NOT NEW. IT IS
A POLICY.

We have been told, again and again, what to do. By Phule. By Ambedkar. By Ranganathan. By committees the government itself appointed. The plans exist. The will does not.

From the tradition · परंपरा से

OUR PEOPLE HAVE
BEEN SAYING THIS
FOR TWO CENTURIES.

THE LIBRARY
IS A RIGHT.
NOT A FAVOUR.

पुस्तकालय अधिकार है । एहसान नहीं ।
Now do something about it.
The next part is the only part that has ever changed anything.

WRITE. TO. YOUR.
CM. AND. THE. PM.

अपने मुख्यमंत्री और प्रधानमंत्री को लिखो । आज ही ।
Note: the buttons below open your mail app with the letter pre-loaded. You'll add the recipient's email address yourself — find your CM and the PM's contact in the steps below.
Open mail with letter → 


      

        How to send · कैसे भेजें    +
        
    
          
  1. To your Chief Minister. Find the CMO contact at your state government's website — search "[Your State] CM grievance" or "[Your State] CMO email". Most state CMOs publish a public email or a contact form. (Coming soon: a verified per-state directory in this letter.)
    2. 
          
  2. To the Prime Minister. Use the official PM contact form at pmindia.gov.in/en/interact-with-honble-pm ↗. The PMO does not publish a direct email, but every submission via the form is logged.
    3. 
          
  3. For an audit trail. File the same complaint via the central grievance portal at pgportal.gov.in ↗ (CPGRAMS) — every submission gets a docket number and a response timeline. Address it to the Ministry of Culture and your State CMO.
    4. 
          
  4. Click Open in mail to draft the email if you have your CM's address. Otherwise Copy text and paste into the portal forms.
    5. 
          
  5. Send. Then send to a friend.
    6. 
        

      

    

  


  
  

    
Six things, in order of difficulty · छह काम

    
AFTER THE LETTER —
THE WORK.

    

  


  
  

    
Ambedkar said this first · आम्बेडकर ने यही कहा था

    
1915. COLUMBIA
UNIVERSITY.
A LETTER TO BOMBAY.

    

      In 1915, writing from Columbia, a young Ambedkar urged the Bombay government to build a library in honour of Sir Pherozshah Mehta — not a statue. The statue went up. A century on, India is still building statues, expressways named after donors, smart cities that are not smart, vanity projects that enrich politicians' families. Not libraries.
    

    

      + The longer story
      

        Ambedkar was reading for his Master's in Economics and Political Science at Columbia in 1915. The Bombay government had proposed a statue to commemorate Sir Pherozshah Mehta, the Parsi reformer and Indian National Congress leader, who had just died. Ambedkar wrote back: build a library in his name. Not a statue. The statue went up. A century on, the same logic governs every public-spending priority — expressways named after donors, smart cities that are not smart, hyperscale data centres for American corporations, and vanity projects that fund politicians' families, friends and the kickbacks they collect.