Akarshana has received appreciation for her work from various people, including DGP Anjani Kumar when he was serving as the Hyderabad City Commissioner.
Akarshana Satish, a sixth-grade student at Hyderabad Public School, is inspiring many with her passion for setting up libraries all on her own.
“She never asked for toys; her books were her toys. She read about 1,500 books in five or six years,” says a proud Sathish Kumar Jagadeesan, a private healthcare employee, of his 11-year-old daughter Akarshana.
In 2021, she collected 1,000 books and set up a library in Hyderabad; she has now doubled her collection. Thanks to Akarshana’s initiative, a library was inaugurated in the Sanathnagar police station by Balanagar Zone DCP T Srinivas Rao on Saturday.
To make her dream a reality, Akarshana had approached Cyberabad Commissioner Stephen Raveendra and expressed her interest in opening a library at the Sanathnagar police station. The officer was pleased with her idea and gave his approval. Akarshana began contacting her family and friends, and in no time, she was able to collect 4,834 books in Hindi, Telugu, and English, including fiction, nonfiction, and general knowledge books.
For the Sanathnagar library, Akarshana donated 829 books, and her dream is to set up five more libraries like this one. She has already set up a library for children at MNJ Children’s Cancer Hospital, which has 1,036 books.
For Akarshana, who says the next stop in her library mission is the juvenile home for girls, the love of reading and helping people gives her satisfaction. Of about 4,800 books collected from several donors in the past two years, she still has some 2,800 books for library purpose.
The sixth-grader, for her initiative and social enthusiasm, has received appreciation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao, and several officers in the government.
“I aspire to become an astrochemist,” she says.