Baal Chaupaal is a literary magazine that aims to spread children’s literacy around the world. The magazine, created by Pankuri Jha, 17, came into existence after she decided she wanted to do more for children than volunteering her time to teach them.
The magazine’s name, translated from Hindi, is an interesting choice for a title and it wasn’t an easy decision. As a literary magazine that is solely for children, Jha thought the combination of Baal — meaning child — and Chaupaal — meaning a place that guarantees freedom of speech and expression, is just what the title needed.
Jha wanted to make sure that all children are sharing their creativity no matter what the language, educational or even economic background. After all, the magazine is supposed to be “by the children, for the children.”
Jha created the magazine as an attempt to share the voices of many children around the world.
She plays a large role in the editing process, but she still believes that the magazine is “by the children for the children.”
In 2010, Jha spent five weeks at Ummeed Aman Ghar — an all-boys shelter in New Delhi — where she helped boys from 5 years old to 17 years old, learn English and math.
It wasn’t enough to spend five weeks in India — she wanted to do more.
“I wanted to see how much I could do,” Jha said. “They have one-tenth of what I have, but they are dedicated to learn. You can see their willingness to learn.”
Jha realized how difficult it would be to continue volunteering in India since she was starting high school soon. That’s when she came up with the idea to start a magazine and send all the proceeds to the Ark foundation in India.
The Ark Foundation was created in 1995 to try and bring a universal approach for educating children. Additionally, programs within the Ark foundation also cover health and environmental issues. Jha was able to collaborate the Ark Foundation, making the magazine’s existence possible.
Baal Chaupaal is a literary magazine that Jha sees as a useful tool to help promote children’s literacy and artistic envisions.
But before the idea to spread the voices of children nationally, Jha had to start somewhere.
Although the magazine has children’s stories from the U.S., New Zealand and India, Jha said that she is hoping to promote her magazine on a national level.
The magazine contains poems, essays, pictures and stories all from children. Some submissions are even written by adults about children.
There are many submissions with grammatical errors and most are not easy to understand, Jha said. She hopes for the magazine, in the next two years, to have representatives (or editors) in a few more countries.
“I want it to be very diverse,” Jha said.
In the next five years, Jha sees the magazine slowly spreading throughout the globe and slowly raising enough money to continue to stimulate global literacy.
The cost of the magazine is $3 and all proceeds are sent to the Ark Foundation in India. For more information visit www.baalchaupaal.org or if you want to submit a story to the magazine, visit www.baalchuapaal.blogspot.com.
