Chitwan district lies in the western part of Narayani Zone with Bharatpur, the seventh largest city of Nepal, as its district headquaters. It covers an area of 2,218 square km in 2001 had a population of 472,048 people. The district takes its name from the Chitwan Valley, one of Nepal’s Inner Terai valleys between the Mahabharat and Siwalik ranges. There are about 40 Village Development Committees (each of which has nine wards or villages) and one sub- Metropolitan city that is Bharatpur and a municipality Ratnagar each of which has more than nine wards or urban areas.
The library residing in Ratnanagar Municipality -5, Chitwan district was opened for the community people on 17th July 2002, whereas Dr. Antonia Neubauer, the President of READ, formally inaugurated it in special presence of the Vice – Chancellor of American Embassy on 21st September 2002.
Jhuwani Community Library began functioning from 2001 and since then it has been serving the community. Jhuwani community library has received support from READ for the development of Infrastructure (like: library building, furniture, computer and books), it has also supported in the organizations of various trainings, sustainability project like ambulance service, technical backstopping, providing feedbacks on how to proceed further.
Geographically the Chitwan District lies at 84° 25′ E Longitude and 27° 37′ 60 N Latitude while the altitude is 244m to 1945m from the sea level. The literacy rate of Chitwan district is 96.76%. The coverage of different castes is Brahmin, Chhetri, Tharu, Newar, Magar, Dalit, Tamang, Gurung and so on while total population of the district is 11979.
1.1 Geographical Status:
Geographically the library lies in the Chitwan District at 84° 25′ E Longitude and 27° 37′ 60 N Latitude while the altitude is 244m to 1945m from the sea level.
1.2 Area covered:
The district has covered 2218 sq km.
1.3 Economic Status:
The main occupations for this place are agriculture, business and service. Regarding the agricultural productions, rice, maize, millet and wheat are key products. Narayanghat is the main market area.
1.4 Accessibility to library:
From both the ways i.e. airways or roadways, person can easily reach to the library. From airways, it takes 15 minutes to Bhartpur from Kathmandu airport and then approximately 30 minutes driving to reach the library. From Roadways, it is 5hours driving from Kathmandu.
1.5 Caste and Ethnicity:
The library has covered Khairahani Municipality – 5,6,12 and 13 Ratna NagarMunicipality1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,11. The coverage of different castes is Brahmin, Chhetri, Tharu, Newar, Magar, Dalit, Tamang, Gurung and so on and has catchment population is near about 562500.
1.6 Educational Status:
The literacy rate of this area is 98.76%. In this area, there is one library & 4 satellite centers serving community as the branch of Jhuwani CLRC.