To Study About the Ratio of Masculine/ Feminine/ Neuter/ Equal Gender Character Representation in Central Roles of Indian Children’s Literature

Manorama Jafa has clarified the impact of conventional stories on youngsters' writing situation in her article, "Kids' Literature in India" which showed up in the book Telling Tales altered by Amit Dasgupta in 1995. As per her, in youngsters' writing in India, the tales got from grown-up writing had two principal sources, one was the inexhaustible fortune of Sanskrit writing; the narratives from the Panchatantra and the Hitopdesha were deciphered; the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were retold to offspring of any age by different writers. The other source was Western writing; Aesop's tales were converted into Indian dialects from their English interpretations; Gulliver's movements, Robinson Crusoe, Lewis Carroll, Hans Christian Anderson, and so forth were deciphered, not really in the language reasonable for youngsters, but since of their substance they were acknowledged as kids' writing. The present situation of kids' image books in India is overwhelmingly impacted by retellings of conventional stories where one can discover ladies portrayed in a cliché way that is in the optional job of giving up moms, faithful little girls, supporting sisters, sly spouses and such. Notwithstanding, new sensible topics are being investigated as of late distributed picture books where ladies are progressively getting their legitimate spot. Contrasted with the Western examinations done on the portrayal of ladies in youngsters' image books, a less number of scholastic looks into have been attempted by researchers in India. Not very many specialists in the field of kids' writing in India like Manorama Jafa, Nilima Sinha, Prema Srinivasan, Navin Menon, Kamala Bhasin, Deepa Agarwal and a couple of more have communicated their interests in this issue. Ishmeet Kaur's "The Cinderella Metaphor" and Vandana Singh's "Voice of Child and Gender Identity in Bharati gender oppression young ladies in Indian culture The books' festivals of young ladies' ability to improving lives and reinforcing connections, both their own and others, include complex arrangements among gender and convention and appear to look to re-compose customary Indian man controlled society, "the wellspring of the foul play of the social desires, requests, and weights put on ladies as indicated by gender jobs". Ladies' essayists envision non-conventional methods of being for their young lady characters—ways that position gender balance as their establishment. In doing as such, they make 'another Indian young lady' character that is available in most of contemporary, English-language Indian kids' books composed by ladies. This character is appeared to have a significant job in postcolonial India. Research in kids' writing, in the earlier century, was accepted to be less requesting than writing for grown-ups, and consequently, of less worth and significance, be that as it may, as per Peter Hunt "Contemporary analysis of kids' writing at its best is varied, utilising new procedures, rehashing and remapping old domains, and investigating new one". Pundits of kids' writing have brought up some significant issues in different kinds of looks. A great fraction of the analysis has been focused on the artistic history and social setting of kids' writing.

The limit of little youngsters to speak to a solid fresh start is the same old thing to kids' writing. One needs to look no further, for instance, than two works of art: Frances Hodgson Burnett tackled this present figure's capacity with Mary in The Secret Garden, as did C. S. Lewis with Lucy in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. However, the manner in which little youngster characters are situated in contemporary, English-language Indian kids' books by ladies scholars seems new; these 'new Indian young ladies' capacity to speak to an advanced, postcolonial India in which gender fairness is starting to locate a cheerful home. Setting up a paired which positions cultural qualities from pre-pioneer and frontier India as in reverse and tricky, these kids' books show the estimation of young ladies in postcolonial India—probably a few young ladies, as per a few scholars. The new Indian young lady achieves this from numerous points of view, which are all supported by a liberal worth framework and in this manner subject to its inadequacies. For instance, many white-collar class new Indian young ladies are depicted as enabled and ground-breaking at the start of a story, subsequently introducing a romanticised depiction of girlhood as indicated by a liberal women's activist viewpoint. The real factors of by far most of the real Indian young ladies, which vary significantly from the printed picture of the new Indian young lady, are frequently missing potentially low standing young ladies, are tended to in kids' books by Indian ladies, it is regularly in a fringe way. For instance, in Shashi Deshpande's A Summer Adventure, the salvage of Shanta, a hireling young lady living in slave-like conditions, is the story's auxiliary plot and gives its glad closure. The goals are a typical one: she, in the end, turns into a worker in the heroes' family. The part begins with characterising picture books and a conversation on the need to contemplate different sorts of picture books, takes a concise diagram of the examination done in the past in the Western nations and India, covers explore strategy embraced to decide the proportion of recurrence of ladies' portrayal in the chose picture books just as the manners by which ladies are delineated in picture books. In the come around of dissecting the discoveries with the utilization of factual tests just as topical investigation of the writings, the specialist has summarised the perceptions in the last piece of the section. It ought to be noticed that image books are the first venturing stone to the way of writing for a little kid. As referenced in the finishing up lines of the Introduction, picture books assume a huge job in the early socialization of the small kid.

1. To examine the representation of Masculine/Feminine/ Neuter/Equal Characters in the Central Roles in Picture Books in India 2. To analyse the Frequency count of Representation of Masculine/Feminine/ Neuter/Equal Characters in the Central Roles in Picture Books in India 3. To study about the Masculine, Feminine, neutral and equal gendered characters are equally distributed in central characters of picture books by using the Chi-square test

The present chapter examines the depiction of women as well as girls in the selected representation book for offspring in India. The focus is on the picture books published or reprinted during the period from 2011 to 2016 by some of the major publishers of children‘s literature in India like National Book Trust (NBT), Children‘s Book Trust (CBT), Tulika, Katha and a few others. The chapter starts with defining picture books and a discussion on the need to study various types of picture books, takes a brief overview of the study done in the past in India, covers research methodology adopted to determine the ratio of the frequency of women's representation in the selected picture books as well as women are depicted in picture books. After analysing the findings with the

analysis of the texts, the researcher has summed up the observations in the last part of the chapter. The present research was completed to analyse the depiction of women in the early reader books and easy reader chapter books for children. The sample of picture books for the content analysis of masculine/feminine gendered character-oriented or neutral titles, themes and central characters include two hundred and forty (240) picture books. These titles were collected from the catalogues of picture books published by concerned publishers during 2011-2016 was collected from the catalogues of selected publishers. For the data analysis of women‘s representation in them, frequency counts of masculine/feminine/neutral/equal (coded as M/F/N/E) gendered characters in titles and central roles in one hundred and fifty (150) books with traditional stories as well as eighty-five (90) books with contemporary stories were recorded in two separate code sheets — one for traditional stories and another for contemporary stories. The collected data was put together in the form of tables and pie charts for analysis of the representation of women in them. In order to determine the gender dominance of one particular gender, the statistical tool of chi-square test was applied to the overall collected data of chapter books. For the purpose of thematic content analysis, a close reading of ninety stories with traditional themes as well as fifty stories with contemporary themes was done. The selected stories were scrutinized with a focus on recurrent themes of gender stereotyping, gender bias and discrimination as well as the patriarchal influence in the depiction of women in them.

The test of Chi-square is the fundamental factual technique to measure the varieties in two variables. The correlation between expected and observed numbers or frequencies can be measured by the Chi-square test in the research methodology. This technique is used to measure the accompanying problems: • Test of goodness of fit. • Test of significance (between two attributes). • Test the significance of the variance of the populace. The frequency of one variable can be compared with the different values of another variable. For example, if a research researcher needs to test the relationship between gender (male and female gender) and empathy. The researcher can use the test of independence to consider the relationship between hypothesis is accepted, then it means that there are no relations between empathy and gender. There is a relationship in gender and empathy if an invalid hypothesis is rejected. The recipe for the chi-square measurement used in the chi-square test is The chi-square equation. The calculated value obtained by applying the test procedure is Where, ► Oi = observed frequency ► Ei = expected frequency

The aim here is to check whether there is any dominance of particular gender in central characters of picture books. For this purpose, the chi-square test of goodness of fit is used. H0: Masculine, feminine, neutral and equal gendered characters are equally distributed in central characters of picture books. Vs H1: Masculine, Feminine, neutral and equal gendered characters are not equally distributed central characters of picture books.

The study was completed to analyse the depiction of women characters in selected eighty picture books and six collections of value teaching picture books. Content analysis was the guiding method for the study. The content analysis included selecting a sample of picture books to study, developing procedures to classify data, coding the data and interpreting the findings. Content analysis can be quantitative or qualitative or mixed. The researcher took a quantitative approach by examining the frequency counts of women depictions in picture books under study. The books were not examined for their overall meaning; however, they were analysed focusing on the depiction of women in them directly or

A book's central character was classified as M if the story revolves around the man protagonist. Out of two hundred and forty (240) books referred from selected picture book catalogues published during the period of 2011 to 2016 by listed publishers, one hundred and seventeen (117) picture books had a masculine character in a central role which is a 49 % of the selected books. If a picture book has a woman protagonist, the central character is coded as Feminine Out of two hundred and forty (240) books of selected picture books; only seventy-six (76) picture books contain a feminine character in the prominent role, which is 32 % of the total selected books. The central character of the picture book is coded as N, where gender is not mentioned or identifiable. Total twenty-four (24) out of two hundred and forty (240) books had neither a man nor a significant woman character in their stories and therefore were coded as N. It comprises 10% of the total picture book titles. The stories in which both man, as well as woman character, have significant representation, it is coded as Equal Out of two hundred and forty (240) books, total 23 books have equal representation of both the genders in a central role which comprises of 9 %.

The aim here is to check whether there is any dominance of particular gender in central characters of picture books. For this purpose, a chi-square test of goodness of fit is used. H0: Masculine, feminine, neutral and equal gendered characters are equally distributed in central characters of picture books. Vs H1: Masculine, Feminine, neutral and equal gendered characters are not equally distributed central characters of picture books.

procedure is using the chi-square test.

The critical value obtained from the chi-square table is

It implies gender dispersion in focal characters of picture books isn't equivalent. As the recurrence of manly gendered focal characters is greatest, the manly gendered focal characters are progressively predominant in examination with other gendered characters. Along these lines, the examination of factual chi-square test unmistakably shows that there is a predominance of unbiased character arranged titles and dominances of manly gendered characters in topics and focal characters in the chose picture books in India. It demonstrates the under-introduction of ladies in all three classes. Aside from the above measurable investigation, the topical examination of chose eighty picture books was done to inspect the delineation of ladies in the characters and representations. The chose picture books were assessed dependent on the repetitive topics of gender generalizing as customary gender jobs performed by the young ladies and ladies in the content, gender predisposition and gender oppression ladies just as the male-centric effect on the delineation of ladies in the subjects of chosen picture books.

These accounts incorporate stories of fantasies and legends from the Puranas, tales, folktales and fantasies, for example, The Stories from The Puranas which have been depicted by A.K. Ramanujan as 'reference book of Hindu folklore' (Agarwal, "Youngsters' writing"), have been a piece of kids' old stories since days of yore. Fantasies are the most spirits, though legends manage people, particularly heroes. The following books retelling legends and legends from Puranas were concentrated in the current research: Books Forever by Manoj Das Tales from Indian Classics-Book I, II&III, Pauranik Stories Part I and II, Puffin Book of Indian Myths and Legend, Indian works of art and arrangement of fanciful and incredible ladies distributed by Amar Chitra Katha, Jaico, Vikas, and Wilco Publishing House.

Aside from conventional fanciful stories, legends and society stories additionally have a conspicuous spot in youngsters' writing situation in India. Legends, not at all like fantasies, are a story that discussion about recorded figures and they could be mostly or even completely obvious. The term legend today is applied to the saint stories; anecdotes about people with superhuman forces; like Hanuman; extraordinary physical quality, as Bheem; or incredible mental capacities, as Birbal, Tenali Raman, Vikramaditya in Vikram and Vetal and others.

The procedure youngsters experience while developing their sex jobs is a significant piece of their insight development. Actually, sexual orientation is thought of as ''the fundamental measurement'' through which youngsters distinguish their place in the public eye. Kids are naturally guided by their subjective procedures to consider sex to be a rule that decides their social conduct. Subsequently, it is off base to expect that kids are only ''uninvolved beneficiaries of grown-up guidance''. Rather, they are ''intellectual constructivists'' who are continually arranging and classifying their general surroundings. Kids ingest a lot of data in their susceptible early years, and this adds to the advancement of their social characters. From a young age, youngsters figure out how to utilise sex as an approach to separate individuals and order their general surroundings, and this influences all parts of their lives. Kids' books assume a significant job in helping small kids in this procedure of distinguishing and sorting sexual orientation jobs. At the point when these books depict generalised sexual orientation pictures, they can antagonistically influence youngsters' thoughts of being female or male. While assessing kids' books, consideration must be paid to messages about sexual orientation development since they influence character development in small kids. Specific consideration must be paid to the personality of characters in the writings that delineate distorted sex job. Kids' books impact kid advancement since they serve small kids as "a sort of manual for the manner in which the world is". In any case, the world books female characters are overwhelmingly underrepresented, females are portrayed in cliché ways, and instances of the male look are pervasive. The Stories from The Puranas which have been depicted by A.K. Ramanujan as 'reference book of Hindu old stories' (Agarwal, "Children's composition"), have been a bit of adolescent' old stories since a long time ago, Myths are the most prepared stories overseeing divine creatures and abhorrent spirits; however, legends oversee individuals, especially saints. The accompanying books retelling dreams and legends from Puranas were amassed in the ebb and flow research: Books Forever by Manoj Das Tales from Indian Classics-Book I, II&III, Pauranik Stories Part I and II, Puffin Book of Indian Myths and Legend, Indian show-stoppers and plan of whimsical and fantastic women circulated by Amar Chitra Katha, Jaico, Vikas, and Wilco Publishing House. Beginning with the creation legend in the Puranas, as depicted in Stories of Creation (ACK), which talks about the start of the Universe, there is an enchanting dream identified with the creation of a woman by the exceptional creator Brahma. It is said that Brahma had first made man and a short time later made a woman out of a man's thumb. Ruler Brahma while familiarising woman with his earlier creation man, states: "She will serve you enduring and if you can't live with her, neither would you have the option to live without her" (Story of Creation, ACK). This crude legend passes on women's unremarkable pictures for the duration of regular daily existence and composing for a seriously long time—generalizations, which may add to setting up and strengthening chauvinist mentalities.

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Research Scholar, Kalinga University, Raipur, Chhattisgarh