Sukanta Chaudhuri is Professor Emeritus in the Department of English, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Besides his academic work in Renaissance studies and textual scholarship, he has translated widely (chiefly from Bengali to English), and writes and campaigns on urban, educational and environmental issues. In the digital world, he has looked after many projects of electronic archiving and their dissemination, including the immense Tagore online variorum, ‘Bichitra’. 

I am excited by StoryWeaver’s ‘Freedom to Read’ campaign. India, young and old, wants to read but is so often unable to do so. So many of our countrymen never had the chance to learn to read: some children are still missing out on the opportunity today. If they do learn their letters, they often do not find the material to keep up their reading, and may even lose the skill. This robs them of their rights as citizens and humans, and depletes the nation’s human resources.

What I find so exhilarating about ‘Freedom to Read’ is that it is a genuinely free and broad-based campaign, trying to make reading material available to children in every possible way: through print, through electronic media, even in audio form where reading material is unfeasible. In particular, they have very astutely chosen to extend their presence on the Internet. The smartphone is the fastest-spreading piece of technology in India, and the most democratic. Over 50 per cent of Indians have mobile phones; an increasing proportion of them are smartphones, and if an adult in a family acquires one, sooner or later it will reach the children. Even more important is the attempt to spread the word – quite literally! – through group Internet sessions in schools and community centres. In a different direction, it is immensely heartening that StoryWeaver is also reaching out to non-scheduled, ‘minority’ languages whose speakers might number lakhs or millions.

I look forward to the day that the ‘Freedom to Read’ campaign, and others like it, will not only afford our children material to read as much as they want, but let them discover the joy of reading. Even the children of privileged families lose that joy by being made to read under compulsion at school. The story book – and that includes real-life stories and stories from nature – is perhaps the best ground where all the children of India can meet.

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-This position is now closed-

Pratham Books (www.prathambooks.org) is a not-for-profit children’s book publisher that was set up in 2004 to publish good quality, affordable books in many Indian languages. Our mission is to see ‘a book in every child’s hand’ and we have spread the joy of reading to millions of children in India. As a publisher serving every child in India, Pratham Books has always pushed the boundaries when it comes to exploring innovative ways in which to create access to joyful stories and have been fortunate in finding partners to collaborate with who share this vision.

In 2015, Pratham Books’ increased its footprint by going digital. As an industry leader, we were one of the first publishers in the country to open license our content. All this content is now available on StoryWeaver, which is a digital platform that hosts stories in languages from India and beyond, so that every child can have an endless stream of stories in her mother tongue to read and enjoy. The stories can be read, translated, versioned or downloaded for free. All stories on the platform are openly licensed.6

We are looking for a Project Manager for StoryWeaver

Illustration by Kabini Amin from BDum Dum-a-Dum Biryani! by Gayathri Tirthapura

This position will work closely with the StoryWeaver Product team to support the operations of StoryWeaver.  The role would involve project co-ordination, anchoring product enhancements, nurturing on ground relationships and support reporting and documentation.

Key Responsibilities:

• Work closely with the internal teams to implement StoryWeaver’s operational plans
• Project level support and coordination across various teams to ensure timely completion of project deliverables
• Track and monitor user trends and usage data to drive future product enhancements
• Anchor product enhancements through user research, requirement analysis, design and communication briefs to tech implementation
• Support the core team in reporting, documentation, campaign processes
• Drive on ground testing beds for key features and partner engagement

Required skills

• Proven experience as a Project manager 
• Excellent organization skills
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English
• Sophisticated ICT skills
• Willing to travel to all project locations
• 2-4 years of experience

Nice to have but not mandatory:

• Experience working with non-profits
• Masters in Business Administration, Marketing or a related field would be a plus

Location: 

This is a full-time position for 1 year and is based out of Bangalore

Compensation: 

Salary will be commensurate with qualification and experience.

Write to us:

Email your resume with ‘Project Manager - StoryWeaver’ in the subject line to [email protected]

 

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Pratham Books is a not-for-profit children's book publisher that was set up in 2004 to publish good quality, affordable books in many Indian languages. Our mission is to see ‘a book in every child’s hand’ and we have spread the joy of reading to millions of children in India. In 13 years, we have published over 3000 books and distributed over 14 million copies of our storybooks and 16 million story cards.

Last year, Pratham Books' increased its footprint by going digital. As an industry leader, we were one of the first publishers in the country to open license our content. All this content is now available on StoryWeaver, which is a digital platform that hosts stories in languages from India and beyond, so that every child can have an endless stream of stories in her mother tongue to read and enjoy. The stories can be read, translated, versioned or downloaded for free. All stories on the platform are openly licensed.

StoryWeaver is looking for a digital intern to help create fun, striking content for its YouTube Channel! 

We launched our YouTube channel in 2016 to share book trailers, stories from the field and even tips for aspiring authors from Senior editors at Pratham Books. 

We're looking for a  fresh pair of eyes and ears to help us digitise some of the multilingual, openly licensed content from StoryWeaver for our YouTube channel.

Project Details

We have a library of amazing audio books recorded using some of Pratham Books' best loved titles with the help of our good friends at Radio Mirchi. The ideal intern will be able to create digital storybooks using this audio content, and the openly licensed images from the stories they are based on from StoryWeaver.

Are you the intern we're looking for?

This is the perfect project if you're a high school or college student looking to add some work experience to your resume. 

The ideal candidate will

1. Have good proficiency of English and any one (or more) of the following  languages: Hindi, Kannada, Marathi and Telugu.

2. Have a good grasp of using a video editing software like iMovies, Windows Film Editor or VCN. 

3. Have an eye of editing and an ear for storytelling to help create engaging video content for children.

4. Basic animation skills are a definite advantage.

While it would be lovely if our intern lived in Bangalore (so they can come by and share a cup of chai with us), we're more than happy to cast the net wide, and invite applications from story lovers across the country. 

If you would like to apply for this internship, do write to us at [email protected] with a covering letter stating why you think you're the right person for the role and attach your resume and any work you think is relevant to the position. 

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