Servants of the People Society

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Lajpat Rai Bhawan, Delhi

Sisters of the People

As of 2025

Photos & Text by Anushka Kogta, Sep 23, 2025: The Times of India

Hidden in a quiet corner of Lajpat Nagar, just a short walk from Moolchand Metro Station, is Sisters of the People—a bookstore with a difference. Founded in 2001 and run entirely by volunteers, it channels the proceeds from every sale into educating children in Delhi’s slums. 


Inside Lajpat Rai Bhawan, the shop looks like any other second-hand bookstore. But its shelves carry rare first editions as well as modern bestsellers, all donated by authors, publishers and readers. Priced as low as 10, the books fund 12 balwadis that prepare three-to-six-year-old children for mainstream schools. 


“We are old, so we can’t do everything,” says Neeru Tandon, 69, who has volunteered for over a decade. “Young students and scholars who help us sort and stock keep the shop alive.” 


For 77-year-old retired radiologist Dr Karuna Taneja, the bookstore is now a daily routine. “Many balwadi children are first-generation learners. For them, holding a book itself is an adventure,” she says.


The initiative is part of the Servants of the People Society, founded in 1921 by Lala Lajpat Rai. Volunteers come for different reasons—some for the joy of reading, others to give back. “I came to donate old books and found a treasure trove,” says Geeta Bansal, 64. “Now I buy books here to gift others. It spreads the habit of reading—so needed in today’s screenobsessed world.” 


For buyers, the reward is twofold: an affordable book and the knowledge that it funds a child’s future. As Dr Taneja puts it, “When you buy here, you aren’t just reading a story— you’re helping create one.”