The Parag initiative of Tata Trusts, which has been working towards promoting children's literature, is aiming to deepen and broaden its efforts to engender the culture of reading and access to quality children's material.

Talking about its various initiatives, Lakshmi Karunakaran, lead - Parag, says with the children's literature sector in India making many positive strides in the last two decades, the market has grown, the work of the existing not-for-profit and for-profit publishers has strengthened, and efforts to consolidate the sector like children’s book awards have increased.

However, the positives characterise the children's literature sector in English a lot more compared to other Indian languages, she says. "While there are encouraging developments like many more translation collaborations between publishers of different languages, ecosystems in Indian languages need a lot more support before market forces sustain at least some aspects. The quantity, quality, and variety remain a challenge..." Karunakaran told PTI.

Parag, which is behind the Big Little Book Awards and the Parag Honours List, also supports school and community libraries so that children have free access to books and an open and vibrant environment that supports reading for pleasure.

"Libraries as an integral component of our education work will, thus, spread further and wider. Our efforts to develop capacities in personnel around libraries will step up too, to match the increased outreach of libraries, and to also build on from having run several batches of library educator courses," says Karunakaran.

She says Parag also offers professional development courses and works with teachers, librarians, and facilitators to develop their capacity to engage with children's literature and create a relationship between books and children.

"Parag currently supports over 4,000 libraries across 8 states. Parag libraries have a collection of curated books suitable to the reading levels and interests of children and a librarian who understands books, children and reading for pleasure," she says. According to her, Parag has supported the publication of over 900 quality children's books across the age group of 3-16 years.

"These stories have been published across 16 languages including non-mainstream languages such as Mundari, Bhilori, Pawri and Santhali. Selected books are available in multiple formats including ePubs, audio, Braille, tactile and animated e-books," she says. Karunakaran says when it comes to promoting reading among first-time learners, the challenges are manifold.

"One of the first environments is of the home. Unfortunately, for a first-time learner from an underprivileged family, there is a good chance that the home does not have storybooks or parents are not readers or even literate.

"Given the current state of public libraries in India or a general absence of a culture of reading, the next environment for the learner i.e. the neighbourhood or the community doesn't offer much access to books either," she rues.

Also as the state of libraries as well as the quality of language education in schools that the first-time learner has access to, are sub-optimal, the school environment does not do enough to help the child naturally become a reader, she says.

According to Karunakaran, Parag will continue to catalyse the children's literature ecosystem in the country especially in Indian languages so that children can access good quality content in their own language and contexts.

"Towards this, the initiative will continue to identify diverse communities, non-mainstream groups and partner with children's publishers, authors, illustrators and artists and enable good quality content to be created through workshops, residences for authors and illustrators in multiple Indian languages," she says.

(With PTI inputs)