Libraries are a State subject, yet central schemes drive their modernisation. Discuss the federal challenges in building a public library system in India.

Libraries fall in the State List of the Seventh Schedule [2]. Yet the Centre leads their modernisation through the Ministry of Culture's National Mission on Libraries (NML) and the Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation (RRRLF). Splitting responsibility between the Centre and the states this way creates several federal frictions.

Why the Centre steps in

• Chronic underfunding: A Parliamentary Standing Committee (2022) found that both the Centre and the states gave public libraries too little money [2].
• Central levers: NML pays for model-library upgrades on a 75:25 Centre–State cost-sharing basis (90:10 for the North-East) [1]. RRRLF also gives matching and non-matching grants [5].

Federal challenges

• Legislative vacuum: Only 19 States/UTs have a public library law [3]. In the other states and UTs, no law requires the government to fund or staff libraries, so central schemes have no reliable state partner.
• Fiscal asymmetry: Poorer states struggle to pay their 25% share, so uptake has been slow. By 2018, only 41 proposals from 22 States/UTs (₹42.42 crore) had been sanctioned [6]. The plan was to cover 35 State Central and 35 District Libraries [1].
• Weak third tier: Local bodies collect library cess, but they often do not spend it on libraries [2].
• Top-heavy design: NML only upgrades existing libraries, mainly one State Central and one District Library per State. It does not pay for setting up new ones [4]. Village and block libraries, which are closest to poor readers, are left to states with little money.
• Capacity gap: Library staffing is controlled by the states. NML has trained 2,465 professionals in 54 programmes [4], which is thin for a national network.
• Policy fragmentation: India has no national library policy, so state systems remain uneven. The Committee urged drafting a National Policy on Library and Information Systems [2]. Central digital platforms such as NVLI 2.0 [4] also need connected local libraries to reach users.

Way forward

• The Centre should circulate a model library law that includes a dedicated cess [2].
• Central grants should be flexible and outcome-linked. RRRLF funds should be directed to rural libraries [5].
• NML training should cover staff in every library, not only model ones.

Central schemes have helped modernise libraries, but they cannot replace state ownership. A public library system built through cooperative federalism, with state laws, local funding and central support, would advance SDG 4 (quality education) and SDG 16.10 (public access to information). It would also strengthen the constitutional promise of an informed citizenry.