Muskaan Ahirwar, a Class 3 student from Bhopal is probably India’s youngest librarian.

Muskaan runs a library called “Bal Pustakalaya” in a slum at the back of Rajya Siksha Kendra, in Bhopal.

Every day, after school she sets up the library outside her house on a mat. The slum children gather around her, listen to her stories and read their own books.

Last year in December, a team of State Education Board visited this slum and gave about 25 books to children to share and read. Impressed by Muskaan, who is also a class topper, they gave her the responsibility to manage the library.

The library now has 119 books and the children are trying to get more.