Daryaganj Sunday market: 40% books damaged in Monsoon showers, no response from civic bodies

Sharat Singh, a 46-year old book vendor of Daryaganj put up a blue cloth above his shop to protect his books from rain. He lost 67 books in this monsoon. Some of the books were antique and he knew that he will never get them again. "Barish hum kitabwaale ke liye accha nahi hay" (Rain is not good for the book vendors), Singh said.

According to the vendor, Daryaganj Sunday book market faces 40 per cent book damage in monsoon.

The vendors of the book market find it hard to protect the books from the water.They have repeatedly requested the civic authorities to build up a permanent space for them in monsoon but they have not responded.

"We do not have any proper shop so we cannot guard our books. It is not easy to maintain a book in monsoon," said Mohsin Mohammad a book vendor. He elaborated if a book becomes wet then it take nearly four to five days to recover.

In this market, most of the books are either pirated copies or old books. The vendors said that the chance of recovery for an old book after getting wet is very less. In the cases of pirated books, the ink becomes blurred due to water.

The vendors also complaint that they do not have proper store houses to keep the books. The place where they keep these books are mostly broken and seeps water.

The rooms get flooded in monsoon and water affects the old books.

Apart from this the number of insects and worms also increase in the monsoon.

"We do our own maintenance but cannot carry the books at our places all the time. We need to keep them at the store houses and every year in monsoon, many books get damaged," said Arman Akhtar a book vendor.

The book association people said that they have asked the government and the civic bodies several times to make different place for them but they did not help them.

"Every year before the monsoon we ask the civic bodies, they give assurance but do not help us," said a senior member of the vendor association.

While the Delhiites welcome rain to get a relief from the heat, these "kitabwalas" spend sleepless nights in monsoon.