If I recall my childhood, we grew up surrounded by books, books of all kinds. Many of them had beautiful illustrations. Children and books were as if integrated.There were many authors in Bangla who used to write for children and all were among the established ones such as Upendra Kishore Roy Choudhury, Leela Majumdar, Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay, Tarasankar Bandopadhyay, Sukumar Ray, Sharad Chandra Chattopadhyay. Then there were remarkable illustrators like Narayan Debnath (who created the immortal character of Batul the great and Handa-Bhonda), Purnendu Potri, Krishnendu Chaki.
Historically, Bengal has had a rich tradition of literature and readership. But in recent times there has been a change in the trend, in films, music and literature, owing to the current socio-political scenario. Unfortunately, the change is not very healthy.
Yet another change is in the life-style and priorities. It has affected both creation of literature and readership. Books are no more a close and an important part of children’s lives. The distractions are far too many and the expectations of parents and society too have a role to play in this shift.
Speaking of content and creation of literature, there are a few publishers in Bangla like Deb Sahitya Kutir, Thema and Anand Bazar publication, who are publishing for children, but they mostly re-publish classics, which are sometimes re-illustrated. Another trend that I saw at Kolkata Book Fair is that the children’s books section is mostly populated with activity books, colouring books and nursery rhymes and the re-published classics, illustrated using commonly available digital stock images. In the past few years, I do not remember having come across a single book in Bangla that is new and noticeable.
There are publishers like Pratham and Tulika, who publish Bangla editions of their books, but these books are not visible in the market. They are not reaching the children, except for those who have access to big malls or book stores. Here, I am mainly talking about the need for good books to reach the small towns, local and independent bookshops.
This scene makes me sad. The kind of books that I do for publishers like Ektara and Eklavya are nowhere to be seen. My friends from Bengal are amazed to find such great work happening in Hindi. In Bengal, it seems as if children’s literature has been taken for granted. The need for a change was not realized until recently and there is still a struggle in letting go of past glory.
As I see, it is not only the matter of changing the marketing strategies that holds key to bring a change, though that is an important area too. But, in addition, the community of readers, and especially the parents, teachers and schools too have a role to play. Until now, neither of them has shown much interest and enthusiasm towards children’s books. This group does hold a potential to bring the shift in the current situation.
Proiti Roy graduated in fine arts from Kala Bhavan, Viswa Bharati, Shantiniketan in 1987. She worked as a graphic designer in advertising–both in India and Bangladesh. She has also worked with handicrafts in recycled mediums and taught art and craft to children in Kolkata for 12 years. Now living in Shantiniketan, she illustrates and designs children’s books.