World Girl-Child Picture Books Project: A Concept Note

In a typical Indian situation, the gender inequality is still at work especially in the way parents look at the girl child. Through years of social conditioning, the female child is generally perceived as a burden on her parents' resources whereas the male child is celebrated as the for reasons rooted in age old social conditioning. Despite the legal machinery in place i.e. right to equal opportunity, and now, right to education, the girl child is often discriminated against, at times subtly and more often than that openly.

This needs to change. To play a role in bringing about a change in the thinking of both the family and the girl child herself, A&A Books has taken up a pilot project to introduce a series of picture books with girl child at their nucleus, effectively reflecting that gender-based discrimination is unfair, and certainly not the way forward.


Work Plan:

The original goal for 2011-12 was to publish a set of 12 picture books in Hindi, and English focusing on the girl child to address the families both in cities and small towns. Owing to the overwhelming response especially the support from organisations like FILI (Finland), Norla (Norway), NPVFL (Netherlands), VFL (Belgium) the number of books will be 24. Do stay tuned with our website to catch up with us on the books coming out every month. The books have contemporary themes, and thus easier to relate to. The objective is to creatively give this sensitive message, drawing on the world talent. Having the books from different cultures also provide universal acceptance of the fact that girl child is an equal, globally. The books will be translated into various languages of India, with respective co-publishers, and also for specific need-based requirements. The books will all be in paperback, and the cover price for each of the titles will be around Rs 60.

An effort will be made to share this project with as many organisations as possible within and outside the country, at different stages of its development, to create a network of inputs, for selection, and also sponsorships for the Hindi edition.

We will welcome ideas for co-publishing in different languages for this project!!