Focus primary education in budget

While the Union Budget is appreciated almost every year for allocating increased budget for education, the focus is, more often than not, on higher education. I understand that Finance Minister’s announcement of more central universities and National Knowledge Commission makes more news; he should however not neglect the primary education. Unless the budget contains something to bridge the widening gap between primary and higher education, the much needed lower-end skill in the economy will become increasingly scarce. The Union Budget must operationalise Right to Education (RTE) and for that primary education must be allocated substantially more. I also expect the budget to give momentum to Rashtriya Mahyamik Shiksha Abhiyan.

My expectations include increased budgetary allocation to further strengthen the sector,and for creating the requisite infrastructure. There should be a centralized regulatory body to regulate the sector in place of the existing system of multi-layer approvals. This would encourage and expedite the development of educational institutions, resulting in inclusive growth. Making primary education more affordable by promoting and funding education at grass root level and subsidizing the primary education. This would result in an enhanced access to quality, yet affordable education. There should be more clarity and transparency in spending of 3% education cess collected.

A separate corpus should be set up for special training programs for teachers improve the level and quality of imparting education. There should be more income-tax deduction in consideration of educational fees paid by parents. There should be incentive for corporates investing in primary education. Participation of private sector should also be encouraged to increase the speed of reforms.

Don't blame brand conscious kids

Many of my friends and parents who come to me for the counseling of their children crib about the overt consumerism that today’s children carry with them. The common grouse is the demand for more branded stuff in their kitty. Well, I do understand their genuine concerns, keeping in mind the space that most of them are coming from. As children we hardly ever though of a brand value and our self worth had no connection with this social parameter.

However, today’s children not only value the brand status but also the differentiator between the local and multi-national brands. Let’s face the reality and accept the fact that children are today living in a different world. And instead of blaming them for this demanding consumerism we should better introspect as to what are the ideals that we are giving to them. Instead of leading them by example we are too focused on earning by hook or by crook.

The kind of disposable income that parents show off today is something that nobody even imagined when we were kids. No wonder, the Gen Y has inculcated this consumerism too early in their lives. And hence kids are becoming target point for most of the product lines which might not be even catering to Kids. Actually this has, of late, been the most successful marketing strategy to drive traffic in the road shows and malls.

This trend is catching up and each and every brand is trying to register in the minds of kids by using them as a vehicle or reaching them for a direct word of Mouth Promotion. A kid might never go to the bathroom to see which Detergent / Washing powder his mom is using but a campaign like Daag Achche Hai - Surf Excel, White Ho Toh Tide Ho, Nirma etc always have Kids in the main Frame of the advertisements.

The question is that whether it actually works better. A friend in the real estate who has a number of malls admit that they plan most of their strategy around kids to drive in more footfalls and it actually works the best with the least investment. It seems the market strategists who were earlier targeting the youth and had major events and promotions around the college going or earning youth have shifted gears backwards. Through trial and error over the years the focus shifted to the Kids.

Kids as the centre point of marketing strategy in the malls are not only used for the promotions and events but also to extend of creating innovative concepts focusing kids like signing the outlets catering to kids, enhancing the kids recreational area, offering special party space for smaller kids, exclusive toy shops etc. The marketing gurus have suddenly woken up to the reality that a captive community of kids can not be neglected for long.

A number of malls have now come a long way with direct interaction of this captive TG and have started having regular weekly competitions for the kids who are coming to them every day. Some of the malls are being redecorated as entertainment destination with a lot of interaction with the Society Operators (Presidents of RWA) and started getting in their own activities with the Kids by becoming partner for those.

Many of such new-age marketing mantra has actually worked. This got these malls people who had kids but preferred to go to other destinations. Children focused marketing gave them a platform to get the kids become a vehicle to drive the parents to these Mall. Some of the malls have taken it to another level by having womens’/mothers’ workshops along with kids competitions for only those mothers whose kids were part of the activity.

Does anybody still have any questions as to why kids today are brand conscious and materialistic with very high and unrealistic aspiration level?

New Year with Children

On the eve of the New Year a number of friends and parents called me up to ask as to what would be my suggestion to them as far as celebrations are concerned. I understand the subtle dilemma here since all of them have kids or growing up children at home. Well, a wholesome family celebration is an ideal way to usher in a new year, partying with the friends too is necessary to network socially which is extremely important in today’s hectic professional life. What is the way out?
Before I could reach to a logical explanation that could meet the social obligation as well as include the children back home, a small news item from Moscow about Tskhinval holding children's New Year party caught my attention. The South Ossetian President Edward Kokoity was to whistle off a children’s New Year and Christmas party at a school in Tskhinval.
The guests were children who crouched in basements during the Georgian artillery barrage in August 2008. The assault killed dozens of Russian peacekeepers and hundreds of local people and left the South Ossetian capital in rubble. The otherwise small news item might have gone unnoticed by many of the newspaper readers.
However, an educationist and child psychologist in me started wondering if the ruined buildings can turn into Children’s Culture and Handicrafts Centre, why can’t an otherwise peaceful nation like India take a lead and plan out something for our own children. After all, everyone likes to celebrate the New Year and kids are no exception, although often the children are sent to bed while the adults have all the fun.
I suggest why not celebrate the New Year and, for that matter, every event this year twice- once with your kids at just a little past their normal bedtime - and once again at midnight, when they are safely tucked up in bed? We can plan out many activities to help our celebrations for the children go well. In case, the children are going to stay up until midnight to see the New Year in, plan out some games to keep them busy.
The bottom line is that make children part of your celebrations this New Year and every other landmark event throughout the year. Let’s take this as a New Year Resolution for the year 2010 and ahead.

Children’s Book Online

In the course of a discussion a writer friend told me that the Children’s Book genre is very competitive one. He was narrating how anything falling out of the genre of text books is notoriously more challenging to market than mainstream fiction and non-fiction. The discussion led me to introspect as to whether it is something to do with the not-so-prevalent habit of book reading among the children or it is the failure of the circulation mechanism that are trying hard at many venues but are often clueless to understand the target audience.
When one is writing children’s books it is not only being addressed to a mixed audience, but the individual’s with purchasing power are only half your audience. Remember: children’s books are written for both a child, and the adult who is buying the book. True, there are some cases where a child has some spending money, but the majority of sales are impulse purchases made by adults for children.
In terms of the market trend to take the book out to the desired audience a whole lot of channels are being used. Some of them are doing large children’s festivals. One such writer/publisher admitted to not being successful in selling 30-40 copies in what was a whole day affair. Some of them are hitting malls but the footfall is increasingly getting less over there during recession and footfall-sales conversion being even lesser.
A few publishers whom I know also adopted the innovate strategy of developing an in-school program with puppet characters. So far they have gone to many schools and have more scheduled. Some schools do like the idea of interacting with them but not all will sell the books. And being an educationist I personally feel that the decision makers are different in every school…even within the same district.
Well, the market will keep plugging along till one finds the magic bullet. While I do support the idea of reaching out to your audience in whatever possible way, I recommend the writers/publishers to have a common meeting ground for the same. How about selling your books on the online kid’s corner? It can also be a common meeting ground where authors, parents, schools, teachers and even children can review the given book. At least, Chitra Awasthi and Rit International is open to this unique idea and we are offering it through www.chuckkle.com.
Easy, Fun, Inexpensive…Give it a shot!

Destination dreamland with chuckkle park

While growing up, playing and watching cartoons one name that we all remember in our collective consciousness is Disney. It seems the undeniable brand power internationally made Disney case study after case study. And I say why not – after all, Mickey Mouse is synonymous to US pop culture and Walt Disney’s marquee signature is universally recognized in any language around the world. But more than that what has made Disney a symbol of children’s amusement is the fact that children across the world identify themselves with Disney and Mickey Mouse.
While working on a number of projects for children in India, I often wonder whether we should have a Disney India. It would be even better if we can conceptualise a brand new amusement park for the Indian children. The breaking news to create a brand-new Disney China outside of Shanghai valued at over $3.5B (USD) has further goaded me to think on these lines now. Since we have made a success of country’s first website for the children, www.chuckkle.com, it won’t be a bad idea to translate it into Chuckkle India Amusement Park.
Still, I would like to make it very clear that Chuckkle India is not a spur-of-the-moment decision to attract media space or bring western media groups over to India. The idea has been percolating over the years to bring a brand-new amusement park for the Indian children and families. Previous attempts in this country were not so successful due to various reasons and I feel Chuckkle India must take those case studies as a learning curve for the future.
A first glance at the idea of an amusement park in India does not reflect the obviously apparent gravity of such a plan. There are numerous theme parks throughout India and one more to that list doesn’t seem to be all that ground-breaking. However, remove the roller coasters, the different attractions, market positioning and the USPs of Chuckkle Park as a whole, and the details and symbolism of Chuckkle India takes front stage of national and worldwide importance.
On the eve of the Commonwealth Games, India has invested billions in infrastructure to develop the city of Delhi-NCR to be a global spectacle. It’s also no mystery that tourism plays a big role in India’s plan to earn foreign currency and extend their image. However, the build-it-and-they-will-come model does not always pan out according to plan. In this case, we have to understand that if we want to play nice and rebrand ourselves to be more open, opening our doors to private participation and exemplify a spirit of a two-way street.
However, I must admit her that the whole concept of Chuckkle India is still in its infancy stage. There will be hiccups along the way and I’m sure there will be areas of disagreement; however, Chuckkle India can be such an important venture for more than just operational reasons to amusement industry. It symbolizes an opportunity for India to demonstrate its ability to exude ‘soft power’ on a global stage. In either case, I see Chuckkle India truly being the place ‘where dreams come true’.

Needed a kids corner

We live in a different world today and hence our world view and approach to deal with situations has to be different. Unfortunately, when it comes to dealing with the needs of the children, more often than not we tend to become a regulatory authority than a guiding force. This has been the root cause of the much talked about generation gap. For instance, we all grew up in a cultural context where even watching television was controlled and regulated by the parents and other elders in the family. Today most of the children make their own choice as far as watching TV is concerned.

Similarly, with the advent of the “World of Mouse”, that is Internet; parents are increasingly finding it difficult to cope with this new menace, in their own perception of course. The conventional wisdom suggests measures to control the children. However, what is urgently needed is understanding; as far as website usability for children is concerned. While I won’t deny the fact that the medium, because of its uncontrolled nature, can have a negative influence on the young minds, we have to understand the fact that the outside world where they go and interact can have even more negative influence on their minds.
Millions of children already use the Internet, and millions more are coming online each year. Many websites specifically target children with educational or entertainment content, and even mainstream websites are adding "kids' corner" sections for children -- either as a public service or to build brand loyalty from an early age.
Despite this growth in users and services, very little is known about how children actually use websites or how to design sites that will be easy for them to use. Most website designs for kids are based on pure folklore about how kids supposedly behave -- or, at best, by insights gleaned when designers observe their own children, who are hardly representative of average kids, typical Internet skills, or common knowledge about the Web.
A lot of people keep asking me as to what is the way out? Is there a need to control the children as far as web surfing is concerned? In my opinion, that will be a regressive step which may have far reaching consequences as far as a child’s psychological needs are concerned. A progressive society will never try to curb the inquisitive minds of its growing population. The question that we need to address is that what children actually want and what they get. Only then we will be able to find the gap between needs and stuff on offer.

If we address the issue from this macro perspective it will be easy to identify the gaps and we as a society will be able to provide solutions to our children, instead of curbing their inquisitive minds. Well, I have made a humble attempt with the launch of www.chuckkle.com, India’s first and only website for the children. It is just a few months old and the response and feedback has further strengthened my resolve to take it forward to the next level.

Driven by the destiny

Well, I personally feel there are moments when you plan things out in the first place and then execute it in the process driven manner. However, there are “the moments” when destiny has its own way to drive you to the waves. All great works which have been recognized by the collective consciousness of the masses fall into the second category.
I too had a brush with such a momentum in life when we thought of doing something constructively for shaping the young minds. By no figment of imagination, at that point of time, had we thought of reaching the scale of operations that we have achieved now.
The humble beginning with the launch of country’s first children specific website Chuckkle was well appreciated by the teachers, students, parents and child psychologists. That appreciation drove us to plan something even bigger and the result was the genesis of Chuckkle India quiz.
By the time we reached to the semi finals and grand finale of the quiz, the response further goaded me and my team to plan out a Children Carnival. Not that there were no bottlenecks. The critics were not ready to accept that there is a room for such an event. Many of them even laughed at the idea.
However, it was destined to happen. One thing led to another and finally we have done it. The first ever exclusive Children Carnival of the NCR region is over and that too with élan. It was heartening to see the 1000 odd school children coming out to attend the carnival with such an enthusiasm.
Personally I was thrilled when the media tried to put words into my mouth for an all India Chuckkle Quiz. This is what I call the momentum which has been designed by the destiny. I take this opportunity to thank all the journalist friends and other well wishers who have supported me in making a dream of Children Carnival a reality. Without your support and encouragement we would not have reached thus far.
Hope to see you all being with Rit International and I promise to make the world a lot better for the children. I believe in “one life one mission” and at the moment my only mission is to shape the young minds constructively.