A ‘Living Library’ event was held at IIM Indore November 6, 2016 by the Social Sensitivity Cell of the Institute; in collaboration with The Human Library, Indore Chapter. The event garnered huge participation from the students who actively interacted with the human books and took away a leaf from their wide and varied experience.
The Living Library is an equality tool that seeks to challenge prejudice and discrimination. It works just like a normal library wherein visitors can browse the catalogue for the available titles, choose the book they want to read, and borrow it for a limited period of time. After reading, they return the book to the library and, if they want, they can borrow another. The only difference is that in the Living Library, books are people, and reading consists of a conversation. These living books are human beings like us but they are special because they face numerous struggles always and they learned to deal with them successfully.
A lot of enthusiasm was seen among students to interact with the books which shared their experience. The books included Visually Challenged, Physically Challenged, Cancer Survivors, Depression Survivors, Alzheimer’s Care Givers, Struggling Entrepreneurs, Young Entrepreneurs, Child Abuse Survivors, Homosexuals and Transgender. Every book had a unique tale to share and offered a new perspective to the students who were keen to learn from their stories. Books gave readers the permission to enter into a dialogue with them, in a hope that their perspectives and experiences will challenge commonly held perceptions and stereotypes and therefore affect the attitudes and behaviours of the wider society.
The Pragat-I team was appreciated by The Human Library, Indore Chapter for taking this unique initiative to sensitize the students on issues of such a great importance.