This presentation is about children's books in India that can help to empower girls by providing strong role models.

1. The Trauma of the Girl Child:
Learning to Take Charge—How Books can Help
• Deepa Agarwal

2. • “We have to free half of the human race, the
women, so that they can help to free the other
half.”
Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of the British
suffragette movement

3. Why girls are unwanted in India
• A deeply entrenched patriarchal system ensures
that freedom remains a dream for most women.
• Religious beliefs reinforce the desire for male
progeny.
• Girls are looked upon as a burden because of the
dowry system.
• Consequently, they grow up feeling unwanted
and worthless.

4. How books can help
• Australian author Mem Fox says, “Everything we
read...constructs us, makes us who we are, by
presenting our image of ourselves as girls and
women, as boys and men”.
• By depicting girl achievers in stories and
presenting situations girls control
successfully, books can help them to evolve
strategies to prevail over adverse circumstances.

5. Addressing this need
• Studies prove that percentage wise, the world
over, girl protagonists seldom play leading roles
in books.
• Conscious of this need in India, over two
decades ago Children‟s Book Trust organised a
competition on the topic “Portraying girls and
boys as equals”.
• Several excellent titles for different age groups
were the result.

6. An Exquisite Balance
by Poile Sen Gupta

7. The Why-Why Girl
by Mahashweta Devi

8. Attempts by individual authors to
address this issue
• Legendary author Mahashweta Devi‟s well-
known title The Why-Why Girl is an important
example.
• It provides an extraordinary role model in the
character of Moyna.
• Ten-year-old Moyna belongs to an
impoverished tribe, the Shabars but is not afraid
to challenge her situation.

9. Moyna’s whys
• “Why shouldn‟t I catch a cobra?”
• “Why do I have to walk so far to the river to get
water?”
• “Why can't we eat rice twice a day?”
• “Why should I eat their [the landlords‟]
leftovers?”
• “Why do I have to graze the Babus‟ goats? Their
sons can do it?”‟

10. The defining moment
• Moyna decides to moves into the author‟s house.
• One night she asks, “Why do you read books
before you go to sleep?”
• The author replies: “Because books have the
answers to your whys!”

11. Crucial questions
• Moyna decides to go to school. But the timings
of the school run by the author‟s Samiti overlap
with the period when she tends goats,
• She tells the teacher: “Why can‟t you change the
hours?...
• If you don‟t teach me, how will I learn? I will tell
the old lady [Mahashweta Devi] that none of
us, goatherds and cowherds can come if the
hours are not changed”.‟

12. The answers
• Moyna is the first girl admitted to the village
primary school.
• At the age of eighteen, she becomes a teacher in
the same primary school.
• Her students also learn to ask: “Why?”

13. What this book establishes
• The spirit of protest and inquiry can bring about
immense change in even the most
underprivileged girl‟s life.
• Moyna‟s determination, her dogged refusal to
accept things as they are can act as an eye
opener even to young girls from far more
affluent backgrounds who silently submit to
unfair treatment.

14. Shanti’s Friend

15. Exploitation by relatives
• When drought strikes the village an uncle from
the city promises to educate Shanti in return for
help with the housework.
• However, there‟s no school for Shanti, only
endless chores and constant fault finding.
• After a severe scolding, Shanti decides to run
away but has no money for her bus ticket.
• She sits down under a tree to think and the tree
speaks to her.

16. Recognizing a girl’s contribution
• “Don‟t cry, Shanti! You‟re a wonderful girl. You‟re so
quick and clever.”
• “Shanti, if you were not there what would Chachiji
do? Who would help her?”
• In a crisis situation, the tree actually hides Shanti.
• Deprived of her help and frightened of having to
explain to her parents, the relatives realize the value
of her contribution.
• When Shanti returns, they welcome her back and
promise to send her to school.

17. What this book demonstrates
• The essential value of domestic labour
• Self-assertion can sometimes put exploiters in
their place
• No matter how helpless, we all possess untapped
inner resources.
• The fantasy element emphasizes the healing
power of nature.
• The friendly tree is a symbol of Shanti‟s
undiscovered strength that comes to her aid in a
moment of crisis.

18. The Battle for No. 19
by Ranjit Lal

19. Discovering hidden strength
• Eight girls on a school trip are confronted with a violent
mob that kills their driver.
• The house in which they shelter belongs to a rich Sikh
family and soon they are under siege.
• They summon up enough courage and intelligence to
fend off their assailants till help arrives.
• A life changing experience for Puja, unloved because her
twin brother died soon after birth, while she survived.
• She shoots the man holding a child hostage, discovering
a hidden lode of strength.
• Her incredulous father is compelled to say, „I have to
debrief you, my dear,‟… „debrief you for the last sixteen
years.‟

20. Faces in the Water
by Ranjit Lal

21. The issue of female infanticide in a
humorous fantasy
• Fifteen-year-old Gurmi uncovers the revolting secret behind
the male births in his family.
• The water in a well on the farm is said to possess magical
properties that bless the Diwanchand family with sons.
• But the „faces in the water‟ Gurmi glimpses turn out to be his
aborted sisters.
• Through a series of hilarious encounters with these
mischievous ghosts, Gurmi brings about change in his
family‟s mind-set.
• While Gurmi is the protagonist, it is the ghost-girls with their
„never-say-die‟ attitude who force a male-centred family to
acknowledge they are essential for the family.
• This book received the Vodafone Crossword Award 2010.

22. How these books can help girls
• Most Indian girls need to develop the courage to
speak up, the ability to evolve strategies to resist
exploitation, and reject the persona constructed
for them by others.
• The above mentioned books provide role
models, demonstrate that there is no weaker or
stronger sex and girls can successfully restore
equity by identifying their strengths and thus
taking charge of their own lives.

23. Thank you!