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Journalism of Courage
A blank wall-mounted LED digital display board hangs next to a brown iron door in a residential colony in central Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar. Metres away, a green net covers an under-construction site under an Ashoka tree, behind a row of flowering plants. In the adjacent neighbourhood of Karol Bagh, potted plants are lined up in front of a glass door leading to what looks like a basement restaurant.
With the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) sealing nearly eight “illegal” basement libraries in Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar, many libraries being run for Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) aspirants across the national Capital have taken to hiding in plain sight.
The corporation’s drive was initiated the morning after three civil services aspirants drowned when flood water breached the basement of a library run by Rau’s IAS Study Circle in a basement in Old Rajinder Nagar on July 27. That library is among the eight sealed in the area.
Though called “libraries”, these are merely common study centres – there are no metal racks sagging under the weight of books or even a librarian reprimanding you into silence.
While some coaching institutes run their own libraries – with access restricted to their students – there are scores of stand-alone libraries, usually located in the basements of shops and residential flats in areas populated by civil services aspirants across Delhi like Old Rajinder Nagar, Patel Nagar, Shadipur, Mukherjee Nagar, Laxmi Nagar and Karol Bagh. These are spaces, where, for a fee, students get basic facilities such as air conditioners, personal cubicles, Wi-Fi connectivity, personal lockers, etc.
The Delhi Master Plan 2021 conditionally allows the use of basements for commercial activity: a basement housing a commercial space must have clearance from MCD, a fire NOC, and follow building by-laws. The Master Plan gives clearance for libraries, clinics, nursing homes, NGO offices, among other establishments, but only when they follow rules strictly.
On June 28, Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi said the building plan for Rau’s IAS Study Circle only allowed parking and storage, not a library. This was also stated in the building completion certificate.
While most underground libraries — advertised via collapsible boards, posters, flex hoardings, painted display boards — have shut shop since the tragedy, some aspirants told The Indian Express on July 29 about some establishments that “even officials will not be able to find unless they are aspirants themselves”.
Ankit, 27, a UPSC aspirant, spends most of his waking hours in a library located in a narrow lane of Old Rajinder Nagar. There’s literally nothing in the lane that indicates the existence of a library — till he points to a blank LED digital display board, which, he says, announced “24×7 Library” in unmistakable colours till the recent tragedy.
“Such hidden libraries exist in almost all lanes of Old Rajinder Nagar and Karol Bagh (located around 2 km away). An outsider needs an aspirant’s eyes to find these places. Without posters and banners, most pass off for just another part of a residential building,” says Ankit, a resident of Ghaziabad who has been preparing for civil services while staying in Karol Bagh for the past three years.
One of the giveaways of the basement libraries are the tea stalls and eateries in the lanes outside, where aspirants hang out for a chai or a cigarette break. The stairs leading to the basement typically lead to a door that opens to a reception area, where the manager or library attendant welcomes you with the fee structure and other details. In most cases, the reception area opens into another room, entry to which is restricted only to those with biometric access.
The door to this room opens into a world of cubicles, lockers, chairs and desks. Here, at all hours, sitting bent over books, are the aspirants. There are timetables, maps and short notes pasted in front of individual desks, besides inspirational quotes to keep an aspirant motivated. Some of the aspirants sit with laptops and earphones, watching online videos of their mentors.
A “chai wala bhaiya” does regular rounds of these libraries, delivering hot chai to the aspirant’s table. Some even get their food delivered to their libraries to save time.
On why most libraries thrive in basements, the owner of one establishment in Old Rajinder Nagar said basements were “significantly cheaper” to rent in the area.
The library owner, who offers UPSC aspirants basic facilities for Rs 2,000-3,000 a month, adds, “Renting a floor above the road level costs nearly 10 times more than renting a basement. Floors above the ground level are mostly occupied by coaching institutes or house owners. Libraries located on the upper floors charge more, about Rs 4,000 a month. For aspirants who are already spending nearly Rs 40,000 a month (on stay, food and study material), this is an expense they try to save on.”
Another library owner claimed he paid nearly Rs 50,000 a month to rent a basement, from where he ran his business. All other owners The Indian Express spoke to declined to share how much they paid to rent a basement in Old Rajinder Nagar.
The owner adds, “Aspirants want good facilities at minimal costs. They are students, after all. Underground libraries are an important element of coaching hubs. I hope they reopen once the situation normalises.”
A teacher and mentor to UPSC aspirants in Old Rajinder Nagar, Mudit Gupta too has been hoping for underground libraries to reopen soon. “If underground libraries are sealed forever, those on the upper floors will raise their rates. Even the raise of Rs 1,000 per month in the fee will make them unaffordable for most aspirants,” says Mudit.
He says some of the underground libraries are owned by groups or individual tutors who run their own coaching businesses. “These are among the cheaper libraries. They offer a package that offers both their mentorship and a library space. The business is sometimes more profitable than their coaching services,” he says.
Over the years, the UPSC coaching business spread from Old Rajinder Nagar to Karol Bagh and newer areas such as Shadipur and Patel Nagar.
Once famous for its wholesale markets, Karol Bagh is now a student hub, where buildings offering paying guest (PG) accommodation jostle for space in equally congested lanes.
Pointing to one of them, an aspirant says, “Many hotels here realised that UPSC aspirants made for better customers. So, they converted their rooms into fancy paying guest (PG) accommodations and their basements into underground libraries — just like the ones being sealed by the MCD in Old Rajinder Nagar. In fact, PGs here are still referred to as ‘hotels’.”
The libraries in Karol Bagh have, for now, not been at the receiving end of the MCD’s sealing drive. Says an aspirant, “That is because most of these hotels-turned-PGs followed in the footsteps of libraries at Old Rajinder Nagar since the July 27 incident. As soon as news of the tragedy broke, these libraries removed all signs and posters inviting aspirants. What you see today blocked by potted plants or locked up were underground libraries before July 27.”
Three years ago, when Ankit, a graduate from Banaras Hindu University, decided to pursue his UPSC dream, he decided to move lock, stock and barrel from his Ghaziabad house to Karol Bagh, where “the cost of living was more reasonable than Old Rajinder Nagar”.
UPSC aspirants in Karol Bagh’s shared rooms pay an average of Rs 25,000 a month for accommodation, with added food and electricity costs. The lower price tag, they say, comes at a cost.
“There are challenges in living with a room-mate — I am an early riser, whereas he is a night owl. My study routine disturbs his sleep, and vice-versa. In such situations, one has no option but to study in an underground library that is open 24/7. Such libraries usually charge between Rs 2,000 and 5,000 a month,” he says.
An incident of fire in Mukherjee Nagar in 2023, among other smaller incidents, shook him enough to file an RTI with the Delhi Fire Service in February, seeking information on standard operating practices for such libraries.
“The reply I received was not satisfactory. Like me, thousands of aspirants are forced to make compromises to save money. Like me, they too requested the government to investigate similar underground PGs and libraries. The government can no longer ignore their requests.”
He says aspirants will continue to risk their lives by studying in such unregulated libraries, especially with the UPSC main exam scheduled in September. “Aspirants who dream of becoming IAS officers are usually so focused on their preparations that they do not realise the dangers of their surroundings till a tragedy strikes,” says Ankit.
