Why do children need stories?

Stories help Children make sense of the world: Samina Mishra

Writer and film maker Samina Mishra from Delhi strongly recommended the need for study of literature and art in school curricula in the country, while addressing the Chandigarh Literary Society (CLS) at ‘Meet the Author’ programme here today at the UT Guest House.
Samina, who is a part of Scholastic India’s programme, Storytelling Night, and UNESCO’s Travelling Literature Festival, Ghummakad Narain, shared her work she is doing with the children from lower middle segment of the society around the country.
Stories, she said, are important for the children to make sense of their their homes, their neighbourhood, and their surroundings and learn to express themselves through different media, whether it is images, text or sound.
With the availability of variety of media to the young generation today, they need to be told the stories of both positivies and not so good part of the happenings around them so as to have a better understanding. She shared her experience of working with children in the walled city of Delhi and areas referred to as Muslim ghetto, and conducted art and writing workshop with children there, out of which has emerged soon-to-be-published book, ‘Come, Walk Through Our Streets”.
Having been awarded the Sea Change Residency by the Gaea Foundation of USA for her works, Samina Mishra shared clips from her documentaries on girl child which she shot in Punjab as part of UNICEF project, “Stories of Girlhood”, and “I found My Way to School”.
Large number of writers from the city interacted with her including Vivek Atray, Deputy Commissioner Panchkula,  CLS Secretary Madhav Kaushik, Suparna Saraswati Puri, Saguna Jain, Manju Jaidka, CJ Singh, Hardeep Chandpuri, etc.