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Kitaab Mahal – The Palace of Books

Kitaab Mahal is a children's library at Natwar Parekh Colony, designed and built by Community Design Agency in collaboration with the residents.

During the pandemic, at least a 3,000 children below the age of 14 at Natwar Parekh weren’t able to continue with their education. The lack of space in their 225 square feet homes, and lack of access to smart devices and internet to attend online classes has only widened the existing gap in learning resources between low and high income communities. The library initiative is community owned and led, and will help create a space where children can interact with each other and learn together again.

CDA ran design workshops with a selected group to design the library. The implementation of the library design was carried out with full participation and supervision of the community. Few selected members of the community, including the youth, are being trained as library educators, who are conducting workshops, organising arts and crafts based activities and read-aloud sessions with the children.