Making economics fun – and important
Mala Kumar
“I hated economics!” says Esther Duflo, who won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2019, along with her husband Abhijit Banerjee and fellow researcher Michael Kremer. She was the youngest and only the second woman to have won the economics recognition. However, children are likely to view the subject with more openness and joy after reading her book Poor Economics for Kids brought out in English by Juggernaut Press, and as a set of five picture books by Pratham Books in Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, and Tamil. The zany illustrations by French illustrator Cheyenne Olivier add value to the books which are as much for children as they are for parents, teachers, and other stakeholders who manage the world of children. The books were launched at Kolkata, Delhi, and Bengaluru, coinciding happily with Pratham Books’ 20th anniversary celebrations.
When I ask the French-American professor how she felt on seeing her book translated into Indian languages, she beams, “It is a dream come true! Even while we wrote our book in 2011, I was clear that we should write about economics for children too.” She is referring to Poor Economics: Rethinking Poverty & the Ways to End It, a path-breaking, research-backed book that she wrote with Abhijit Banerjee.
Children’s books have played a big role in Esther’s life. She remembers reading a comic book about Mother Teresa as a child and imagining a city packed with people. When she came to Kolkata as a 24-year-old student of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she saw how different it was from her imagination and the pictures in the comic. This and many other observations led her to examine stereotypes, especially regarding poverty. During their over 20-year association with India’s poor, through nonprofits such as Pratham, Esther and Abhijit pioneered the use of Randomized Controlled Trials in projects related development economics, education, and poverty. “We saw how effective picture books in local languages were on students’ learning through interventions such as ‘Teaching at the Right Level’,” she says.
Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) is a method developed by Pratham that believes that teaching starts at the level of the child, irrespective of their age and grade. By gauging the level of the child’s competencies, the teacher chooses the relevant level to teach reading, understanding, expression, and arithmetic skills. These books, very different in presentation and style from what most children are used to, can also be used at various levels – a young reader could read just the short narration on each page, or read it along with the speech bubbles for more depth. Or, a child could ‘read’ the picture like a two-year-old I know – she discovered little ant illustrations on most pages of one book and started counting them!
Each of the five books is named after the characters who could be from anywhere. “The stories are universal because we think poverty is universal. The solutions too could be universal. We’d like parents, teachers, and students to use these books at home, in schools, and libraries, and discuss the issues in a positive way,” hopes Esther. “In most books for children, they are either the victims, or the receivers, or the heroes who find the solutions. In our books, children are often the ones who identify the problem, but the solution is proposed by different people. Sometimes, there is just a suggestion of a solution.”
Each book can be read on its own, even though there is a common thread running through the series. In Nilu, the young girl does not want to go to school. Why? How does the community help not just Nilu, but also her teacher? Within the 36 pages of each of the books, readers are offered a likely solution in a light, non-judgemental way. Nilu provides hope for elementary education, just like Bibir does for entrepreneurship, Afia for healthcare, Neso aur Neji for migration and Oola for governance and gender equality.
The book was originally written in French and then translated into English by the author. “Reading in your mother tongue allows for a much closer connection to the book and to the characters, in my view,” says Esther. “When I had to present something to the Nobel Prize Museum as per custom, I chose to donate a set of children’s books – brought out by Pratham Books! I can’t believe I’m now one of authors of this multi-lingual publisher!”
The illustrations stand out for their quirky use of colours and motifs. Cheyenne has adapted a technique that uses only primary colours in layers, which, though very time-consuming, makes the printing less expensive. She has also made extensive creative use of the S-curve and L-curve that economists speak about in relation to income over time, a subtle reference to factors such as education, opportunity, and health that affect these curves.
Can poverty be ended? Esther is hopeful. As the co-founder of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT, her focus has been on reducing poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. “Often, poverty is written about with fancy formulae. Lack of information is one of the reasons that keeps the poor poor,” says the professor.
Poor Economics for Kids, the pun in the title intended to show up the poor understanding of the poor and the policies based on prejudices, is based on composites of real people. “My mother, a paediatrician who treated children of war victims, made sure I saw the poor,” says Esther. “You’re lucky that you’re not born in that place (of poverty) and you need to do something with that luck. I have always wanted to justify my luck.” By decoding her research and making it accessible to the least served, Esther Duflo has done just that.
The Economics for Kids set of five books is priced at Rs.500 and available on the Pratham Books webstore. Poor Economics for Kids by Juggernaut at 400 pages is priced at Rs.1000.
The writer, formerly an editor at Pratham Books, is the author of the Rupaiya Paisa series and I want that one!, a copy of which is on display at the Nobel Prize Museum. She can be reached at mala.kumar@yahoo.co.in.
