In a remote Zilla Parishad school in Maharashtra, a boy sits cross-legged on the verandah, reading aloud from a storybook. His classmates gather, wide-eyed and silent. For many of them, this is a first: the first time seeing a book with pictures, rhythm, and rhyme. The first time a story isn’t attached to a test. The first time they’re reading for joy.

Scenes like this aren’t rare anymore, thanks to Chetan Pardeshi — an ordinary working professional who has quietly built an extraordinary movement. Through S for Schools, a volunteer-led initiative delivering mobile libraries to rural government schools, Chetan is turning weekends into windows of possibility.

Over the past few years, he and an army of changemakers have brought storybooks — especially English ones — to over 150 government schools across Maharashtra.

But this isn’t just about books. It’s about giving first-generation learners something they rarely have: the confidence to speak up, the tools to imagine more, and the language to carry their dreams forward.

“Books make children dream — and English gives them the words to shape those dreams,” says Chetan Pardeshi, the man behind the unique concept of ‘mobile libraries’ at the Zilla Parishad level.

From one shelf to a state-wide movement

Chetan Pardeshi didn’t set out to start a library revolution. It began almost unintentionally — with a single bookshelf in a government school that had none.

“I was just looking to volunteer in a meaningful way,” Chetan recalls. “But when I visited these schools, I realised something simple yet heartbreaking: there were no storybooks, no colourful pages, no books that weren’t tied to exams. Children didn’t even know what it meant to read for fun.”

In rural India, this gap is especially stark. While infrastructure, midday meals, and basic instruction are in place, very few Zilla Parishad schools have access to engaging, age-appropriate English reading material.

That’s where S for Schools stepped in with a deceptively simple model: five schools per cluster, 50 carefully curated books per school, rotated every six months. All books are donated, and everything — from transport to installation — is managed by volunteers.

The impact was immediate.

At ZP School Gherewadi, where one of the first libraries was set up, teacher Babasaheb Kale still remembers the children’s surprise.........

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