What is it like to be a differently abled child? Spreading awareness on disability can be a challenging task, not just among children, but even among adults. But stories can accomplish this task more easily than information crammed into a pamphlet. A few authors, publishers and non-profit organisations have started batting for stories featuring children with special needs, which, they say, will go a long way in building an inclusive society.
While there are plenty of beautifully illustrated books by international authors addressing this topic — such as Just Because by Rebecca Elliott, Susan Laughs by Jeanne Willis, and Special People, Special Ways by Arlene Maguire — a similar repertoire of works is missing in India. Now, however, Indian authors are slowly but surely warming up to the idea.
As part of its Parag initiative, the Tata Trusts has been working with Indian authors to bring out books that are for and on children with special needs. Swaha Sahoo, head of the Parag initiative, said the idea behind the project was to promote the habit of reading for pleasure and also publish original storybooks in Indian languages for children. Working with Tulika Publications, it has brought out three children’s books in nine Indian languages so far.
“While working on this project, we realised that there is a dearth of books for children and in those, too, a large section was being left out: children who are specially abled. The few books that have children with special needs as characters depicted them in a heroic way. Anything these children do is shown to be magical. But we wanted authors to talk about special-needs children just as they would of any other child,” said Ms. Sahoo.
Finding a publisher can be an uphill task. “There is a dearth of books on children with disabilities. The problem is also the mindset of schools and parents who select books for children. One of our books was criticised — by a reviewer — because she felt children would not identify with the disabled characters in it. For us, though, these characters are children first. They have the same sense of mischief, the same kind of dreams and frustrations. The fact that they are disabled does not define them,” said Anushka Ravishankar of Duckbill Books, which has published nine books on the theme by eight authors.
“We want good stories. But we don’t want stories that are only about the disability. We look for stories that treat the child as a child first, and not a victim. The children don’t see themselves like that. So why should anyone else? We do not want books where the disability is the hero,” said Ms. Ravishankar.
Four of the books published were results of a contest conducted by Parag initiative along with Duckbill in 2017. “We announced a contest and invited scripts dealing with the subject. We received 120 entries of which four were selected for publication. While one criteria for judging was the entertainment value of the script, we looked for pitches that did not pass any judgment on special-needs children and dealt with the subject with sensitivity, and used a lot of illustrations,” said Ms. Sahoo, and added that there were plans to conduct more such contests to find new authors and new stories.
‘Slowly gaining ground’
“This trend is slowly gaining ground, and there are increasingly more authors who are writing on the subject,” said Zainab Sulaiman, author of Simply Nanju , published by Duckbill Books. It is a story about a boy who tries to find out who is stealing and tearing pages from the class toppers’ notebooks. The setting is a school for differently abled children.
Ms. Sulaiman has worked as a volunteer-teacher at the Association of People with Disability (APD) in Bengluru and now helps them raise funds for APD. She said, “I wrote the book because I thought the world needed to know how absolutely normal such children are. They are as naughty, funny, endearing, and even manipulative as other children. It’s high time we began to view them not from a lens tainted with pity, but from one of equality.”
About the dearth of books on the subject, she said, “Things are improving. There is a lot of good work out there, and thanks to sensitive and enlightened publishers such as Duckbill, the future looks bright for such writing.”
A different path
Against All Odds by Ramendra Kumar: Football lover Kartik traces his journey from Kolkata to Rourkela, where because of his disability, he is treated like an outcast. The school football coach refuses to let him play. But he tackles every obstacle, and makes some friends on the way.
Simply Nanju by Zainab Sulaiman: Ten-year-old Nanju was born with a spinal defect. In this story, he tries to find out who is stealing and tearing pages from the notebooks of the class toppers. The setting is a school for differently abled children, where like in any other school, children learn to deal with bullies and peer pressure.
Unbroken by Nandhika Nambi: How does a strong teenager who does not like to be dependent on anyone cope with being bound to a wheelchair as the result of an accident? Teenager Akriti is not afraid to let the world know that she is angry with the cards fate has dealt her.
Vibhuti Cat by Shikhandin: Magesh does not talk much, but that doesn’t impede his communication skills. It’s a story about a differently abled child and how he sets off on the path of personal growth through art. He especially love drawing cats.
