One can access over 11,000 stories in 100 languages on the website launched by Pratham Books.
Bengaluru: Do you enjoy reading material in your own mother tongue?
If the answer is ‘yes’ and you find it difficult to access the material, type ‘Storyweaver’ on the Google bar and the portals of a Digital Library will open on your computer screen. This will lead you to 11,991 stories in 100 languages!
The Digital Library was launched on Mother Languages Day, February 21, 2019 by Pratham, an NGO located in Bengaluru and working for promotion of literacy and imparting quality to education and public instruction. It has been launched as part of the ‘Freedom to Read’ Campaign.
Many mother tongues are facing a threat of extinction as nearly 40% of the world’s children are studying in mediums of instruction that are not their mother tongue. A UNESCO report on mother tongue literacy highlights the scarcity of such material, which leads to stifling creativity and articulation among children.
Many mother tongues are facing a threat of extinction as nearly 40% of the world’s children are studying in mediums of instruction that are not their mother tongue. A UNESCO report on mother tongue literacy highlights the scarcity of such material, which leads to stifling creativity and articulation among children.
‘Freedom to Read’ 2019 directly addresses this yawning gap by creating open digital libraries in 100 mother languages. While the platform has scaled to storybooks in 147 languages in the last three years, the goal of the ‘Freedom to Read 2019′ campaign is to partner with a global network of organisations and individuals to create high-quality reading resources. Each of these digital libraries will encompass 50 to 100 storybooks. These digital storybooks are meant for use in classrooms to capture and retain students’ interest in reading as well as to preserve local cultures and languages. This is also likely to provide and boost links between the language spoken at home and the medium of instruction in school.
Pratham Books, which prepared the material, collaborated with ten national and international organizations and nine individual volunteers who shared a zeal for local language reading material for children.
Pratham translated hundreds of books from one language to another and got them peer-reviewed. The translators were even supplied with translation manuals and their efforts were coordinated through webinars. The languages included from India are: Assamese, Bengali, Bengali-Kora, Bengali-Santhali, Bhojpuri, Bhoti, Bundelkhandi, English, English-Bengali, English-Hindi, English-Marathi, English-Tamil, English-Tulu, English-Urdu, Gondi, Gujarati, Haryanvi, Hindi, Kannada, Konkani, Kora (Bengali Script), Korku, Kumaoni, Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Pawari, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali (Bengali Script), Santali (Ol Chiki), Sindhi, Surjapuri, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu.
The website by the Pratham has options for uploading new books, translations, making offers for translation and uploading illustrations (subject to modification). The stories can be accessed at https://storywever.org.in
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