Our children deserve the best. Working with this stated objective means that we develop the most attractive books for children in their own mother tongues and rooted in their local contexts.

If you cast your mind back to your own childhood, you might be reminded of the time when your first and most favourite children’s book reflected your own world back to you and tickled your imagination. As you became a fluent reader, you probably began reading about people from other parts of the world.

We would like for all children—specially first generation school-goers to have the same experience with their first books. Just as they require nourishing food, they require the best books that will make them autonomous readers for life. Fluency in the mother tongue is essential for all learning as well as acquisition of other languages such as Hindi or English.

Attractive, illustrated stories and poems, non-fiction in book form introduces children to the pleasure of reading. Such books help them practice a newly acquired skill with the exercise of choice. It encourages them to form opinions and improves their oral skills. These will be published in as many Indian languages as possible, including tribal languages. They will reflect the diversity of stories and experiences  from across the country and give visibility to different childhoods.

Teachers in government schools also need support with books that help them develop and improve their own teaching, given the exigencies of their own classrooms. These classrooms may have children speaking multiple mother tongues, may hail from vastly different backgrounds , they may not be able to attend school regularly and the teacher has to devise ways to ensure that all children learn. Practical tools, fresh ideas to rise to the challenges of an ever-changing classroom will be the fulcrum of this stream of publishing.

Learning material specially designed for children increases their exposure to the number of printed pages from which they can learn. Living in low print environments, they rarely get to read anything more than their text books and simple support material improves their access to different sources of knowledge. This will be guided by curricular objectives and will assist both the children and the teacher. The price will be kept in a bracket that even the most economically disadvantaged can afford. Two low cost learning magazines, namely Chahak for primary grades and Mitwa for secondary grades have been launched under this stream of publishing.