Manorama Jafa is author of over 100 children’s
books, and over 600, stories,
articles and research papers on children’s
literature. Some of her books have also been published in Japan, Singapore,
Holland and Italy. She has served as Consultant to the Children’s Book Trust,
New Delhi for about 20 years. From 1976 she has continued to direct Writers’
Workshops on writing, for different age groups and for children with special
needs, in English and Hindi, in New Delhi and several other cities in India. A
large number of present day writers have benefited from her workshops. She has
also written a book titled
Writing for Children and pioneered a movement for better
books for children in India. She has also directed writers’ workshops in
Singapore, Thailand, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Republic of Korea.
Manorama Jafa has also written for adults. Her
short stories in Hindi have been published in several magazines, and a
collection published by Kitab Ghar, Delhi. Her first Hindi novel DEVIKA won Sahityik
Kriti Samman from
Hindi Academy, Delhi (2008).She has published nine novels.
She is founding Secretary General of
Association of Writers & Illustrators for Children (AWIC)/ the Indian
Section of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY). She is
editor of AWIC’s quarterly journal WRITER & ILLUSTRATOR since 1981. In
1996-2000, she was elected Member of the Executive Committee of IBBY, and in
1998 to 2000 served as the Chairperson of the Jury for the prestigious
IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award. She was Member of the Jury for
the UNESCO Prize for Children’s and Young People’s Literature in the Service of
Tolerance and Peace from 1999 to 2001.
In September 1998 she was the chairperson of
the World Congress on Children’s Books (26th Congress
of IBBY) held in New Delhi.
In 1991 she was the Chairperson of the Jury
for the International Children’s Film Festival held in Isfahan, Iran. She
developed a project Books for children in Afghanistan and
got picture books prepared in PASHTO and DARI languages and presented
these books to Minister of Education, Government of Afghanistan, in Kabul in
July 2005 and again 2006.
Some of her other projects are: publication of
an illustrated dictionary for children in Hindi language (1989). She is
Director of AWIC Literacy Project since 1995. This project has published
alphabet books in eight Indian languages – Hindi, English, Bangla, Tamil,
Telugu, Oriya, Urdu and Gujarati. A number of children’s books, developed from
the work of participants of Writers’ Workshops have also been published. She
has participated in a large number of seminars and conferences in India and
many other countries from 1972 onwards.
In 1997, she founded Khaas Kitaab Foundation,
an NGO dedicated to developing literature for children with special needs. The
Foundation has produced high quality books in English language, several of
which have also been taken for publication by other publishers in different
languages, as also by some publishers in Japan, Italy and Holland.
In recognition of her contribution to
children’s literature, Bharatiya Bal Kalyan Sansthan (Uttar Pradesh) gave her an Award in
1992. In 1997, the All India Juvenile Literary Conference, Calcutta, awarded
her the Surama Hom Roy Award. In December 2000 she received Manga Devi Award
for Children’s Literature from Sri Venkateswara Balakutir,Guntur (Andhra Pradesh). The American
Biographical Institute nominated her Woman of the Year (1997) and the
International Biographical Centre (IBC) Cambridge, England, nominated her
International Woman of the Year (1997-1998), and again in December 1999 IBC
nominated her among 2000 outstanding scholars of the 20th century.
In 2014 she was awarded Padma Shri by the President of India for her
contribution to children’s literature. In 2016, Imperial Majesty of Japan
conferred the highest civilian award of Japan : “Order of the Rising Sun”.
