‘Human Library’ where readers borrow human beings comes up in Mudipu

A ‘Human Library’, will begin lending people instead of books to readers in Mudipu on the city’s outskirts.

The human library was inaugurated recently during the 131 birth anniversary celebrations of Dr B R Ambedkar by Jana Shikshana Trust, Apnadesh Balaga, among others, at the trust’s office in Mudipu.

“The library will allow its readers to ‘borrow’ human beings and learn from their life experiences with the help of meaningful discussions,” trust director Sheena Shetty told DH when contacted.

In this unique human library, people are ‘living books’ who will share their experiences through conversations with readers.

At a time when social issues, including a lack of trust among people, is prevalent, the human library aims at helping human books and their readers understand each other in order to realise a harmonious society.

“We were motivated to set up a human library after reading Raghunath Cha Ha’s article about the concept in the Kannada newspaper, Prajavani. Such libraries are the need-of-the hour to tackle prejudices in the minds of people,” emphasised Shetty.

The concept though new to these parts was first launched in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2000. “Our human library is a place where dialogue is initiated by human books engaged in people-friendly and environment-friendly initiatives. The readers from surrounding areas will learn from their experiences and will help in building linkages to society,” he said.

Anyone with a unique story to share will be a human book, he said.

At the end of each dialogue, participants emerge with a broad view of society and its happenings.

“We will invite those opposing us to share their thoughts,” he added.

Through the human library, we hope to inculcate humanitarian thoughts in people. The human library is spread over 80 countries and is active in New Delhi also,” he said.

Human Library’s first dialogue on April 22

Mudipu Human Library’s first dialogue will be held with humanist, social scientist and educationist Umashankar Periyodi at 10 am on April 22.

During the inauguration of the human library, entrepreneur Ramesh Shenava said that the human library helps in promoting humanity by overcoming inhumanity and leading a life as per the aspirations of Dr B R Ambedkar.