Blog 1: Women in Indian children’s literature

In my first blog, I will focus on how women are represented in Indian children’s literature. No country is perfect and India too, is no exception. Mishandling women and growing crimes against them can be reduced if we can teach children to respect women. The best way is to correctly depict modern women in literature which will help children to develop image of women and their role in the society. I was surprised to the fact that India still lacks in conducting enough research in children’s literature. This was surprising to me because, India has one of the oldest history in the mankind. Indian heritage is full of old tales, myths, and epic stories like Ramayana and Mahabharata. Despite this, academics often rely on western children literature for study and analysis. A study was conducted where story books for Indian children published from 2010-2015 was taken and analyzed. It was found that Gender stereotyping was a frequent issue particularly, stereotyping characteristics of a women. It was found that Indian children’s literature portrayed women as shy and submissive in nature. Women were normally shown to be doing household chores like cooking, cleaning and raising children. I, by no means think these are small tasks, but when only one specific gender is shown doing it, it builds an image in the minds of young readers. With the advent of modern era, women’s image needs to change as women today in India are surpassing men in all fields. Indian authors and illustrators also need to realize this change of phase. There are few bright sparks who have emerged in recent times and one such group called Irrelevant started a project called Irrelevant Project. According to them children starts to discriminate gender as early as age 4. So, they have published books for children ages 6-8 which allows them to think out of the box on issues like preconceived notions, education and culture. If we can make children realize that male and females are equal in early age, then that will be our biggest victory.

Works Cited

“The Irrelevant Project.” The Irrelevant Project, www.theirrelevantproject.com/. A group people who publish books for children age 6-8 challenging ideas which stereotype women.

Shinde, Sucheta. “The Depiction of Women in Children’s Literature in India.” Shodhganga@INFLIBNET: A Critical Study of CSR Activities of Large Scale Enterprise in Western Maharashtra, Aurangabad, 30 Mar. 2016, shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in:8080/jspui/handle/10603/126120.