New Delhi, Oct 26 (Bureau) Children’s literature and its importance is the need of the hour, said Professor Shaikh Aquil Ahmed, Director, National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL). Children’s literature is a difficult style in which it is necessary to take into account the mental level needs of the children. He said that Urdu along with other genres has a strong tradition of children’s literature and many writers have created literature for children and magazines have also written for children, which played an important role in the development of children’s literature, but nowadays there are many problems.
One of them is that very little work is done on children’s literature and the second important issue is the quality and standard of the literature. Ahmed said that the council would take necessary steps to promote children’s literature as per the current needs and requirements. He also said that the council will soon organize a training workshop for writers and institutions writing on children’s literature. Prominent writer Zakia Mashhadi, while participating in the discussion, said that it is important to inculcate interest in Urdu language in children only then we can attract them towards higher literature. Mashhadi said that useful literature for children can be made only if it is written keeping in mind the age, mental level, emotional level and intellectual level of the child. Children’s writer Sardar Salim said that we should accept the fact that in the present time many literature and magazines are promoting children’s literature.
He also said that we should always encourage new writers. Siraj Azim while expressing his views said that in recent time due to the progress of science and technology there has been an extraordinary change in the mental and intellectual level of children, which needs to be felt and only then successful literature for children can be produced. Naushad Momin, editor-in-chief of children’s magazine New Toy, said that while the creative level in children’s literature is half-truth and half-fiction, it is the responsibility of writers to create children’s literature keeping in mind the needs of the times. Speaking on the occasion, Shams Iqbal, Editor (Urdu) of NBT also said that there is a need to improve the content as well as improve the attendance in children’s literature.