TALES FOR ALL
STORYWEAVER, A DIGITAL RESOURCE FROM PRATHAM BOOKS OF ILLUSTRATED STORYBOOKS IN DIFFERENT INDIAN LANGUAGES
Saura, Munda, Kui, Juanga—all tribal languages from Odisha—are just some of 124 languages that can be found on StoryWeaver, a treasure trove of engaging illustrated books for children. The storybooks are categorised according to reading levels, with 1 being emergent to 4 being fluent, a system that lets the children determine their own reading ability. “With as much as 40 per cent of the global population not having access to education in the language they speak or understand, the issue of lack of linguistic diversity in children’s books is a serious concern,” says Purvi Shah, head of digital initiatives, Pratham Books. “StoryWeaver leverages technology and open licensing to address this gap.”
The open licensing model enables non-profit organisations working with local communities across India to rely on the free content available on StoryWeaver and translate it to make it accessible and comprehensible to kids from marginalised rural and tribal areas. Suchana, an education support group for children from Santhali and Kora villages around Santiniketan, West Bengal, has translated 84 titles into the two tribal languages; Aripana Foundation is creating a repository of children’s stories in Maithili through Project Lemonchoos and Azad India Foundation has translated them to Surjapuri. Others like Konkani Bhasha Mandal have printed and disseminated Konkani storybooks in Goa. A volunteer printed about 80-100 Gondi books locally, and distributed them to children in villages in Bastar in Chhattisgarh. It’s not just the children who are improving their reading skills and expanding their vocabulary, a new force of authors, illustrators and translators have also found an outlet for expression as they collaborate on stories which are socially and culturally authentic to India. StoryWeaver’s appeal is not restricted to the homeland. Features like ReadAlongs, wherein stories come with subtitles and can be “read aloud” with every page-turn, have been listened to for more than 500 hours in Argentina, Vietnam, and the UAE, among other countries.
With greater internet connectivity breaking geographical boundaries, Shah recognises the power of the digital medium. “We envision a wealth of hyperlocal digital libraries, built through collaboration with translators, educators, and other non-profits that can serve the children who need them most,” says Shah.
—Suhani Singh
“We are not taught our mother tongue in school. When we were kids, we had no story or poetry book in Gondi. Now, we’ll be able to gift our children Gondi books” Sanju Mandavi, volunteer, CGNet Swara’s Yatra initiative in Chhattisgarh