About
A Grassroots
Library Builder
Born and raised in village Bansa, Hardoi district, Uttar Pradesh, Jatin Lalit is a lawyer, social entrepreneur, and education rights advocate who has dedicated the past six years to democratising access to knowledge in rural India.
His journey began in 2020, when he returned to his village during the COVID lockdown and — with just 50 donated books in a single room within a temple courtyard — founded Bansa Community Library & Resource Centre, the first free community library in the history of Hardoi district. Today, the library has grown into a thriving knowledge commons with over 6,200 registered members, 9,000+ books, and serves 80 villages — plus a mobile library, Chalti Phirti Bansa Library, which visits 54 additional villages on a roster basis.
As General Secretary and Director of the Free Libraries Network (FLN), Jatin leads a collective of 265+ community libraries across India, facilitating knowledge-sharing, training, and capacity-building at scale. Through the Aruna Mithlesh Foundation, he expands this work into skill development, healthcare access, and community livelihoods.
Trained as a lawyer with a background in Constitutional Law, Education Rights, and Social Justice, Jatin brings a rights-based, policy-informed framework to every library he helps build — ensuring spaces are not just stocked with books but genuinely owned by the communities they serve.
His work has been featured in The Times of India, The Indian Express, Gaon Connection, The Print, YourStory, The Better India, and documented by India Today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recognised the Bansa Library in his Mann Ki Baat address in 2022. The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh also applauded his efforts, and the Hon'ble Governor of Uttar Pradesh felicitated him at the Governor's House, Lucknow.
