Manorama Jafa

Manorama Jafa is an Indian author of more than 100 books for children, as well as feminist novels for adults, and academic research and writing on children's literature. She has served as Secretary General of the Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children and as the Secretary General of the Indian National Section of the International Board on Books for Young People. Jafa completed a master's degree in Geography from the University of Allahabad. Jafa began writing in the late 1960s, starting with local newspaper columns before developing stories. Her first children’s book was titled Donkey on the Bridge. Other works for children include The Parrot and the Mynah, Laughing Parrot, and The Ladybird and the Butterfly, which, according to Dipanita Nath of The Indian Express, make "clear that Manorama sticks to earthy values, especially unity in diversity." and her book Toru Nanu and Hipu is written for children who became orphans after the Indian Ocean tsunami. Her books written for adults, including Devita, were described by Nath as having "a strong feminist accent." She also co-founded the Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children (AWIC) with the cartoonist Shankar Pillai which was founded in 1981. By 2006, she was the head of the Khaas Kitaab Foundation, a publisher of children's books. She presided over the 26th Congress of the IBBY, conducted in 1998, as its Chairperson. In 1998, Jafa invited Empress Michiko of Japan to give the keynote speech at the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) Congress in New Delhi and later visited Empress Michiko in Japan. In 2013, as Secretary-General of the IBBY India section, she met with the Empress and introduced her to members of the group, after previously meeting her in Japan in 2004. The collection includes technical books on children's literature, some of her correspondence, her Hindi novels for adults, and other materials related to children's literature. In 2016, she was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, the highest civilian award in Japan. Her Hindi novel Devika won Sahitya Kriti Samman from Hindi Academy, Delhi (2008).

Selected works

Manorama Jafa In Kireet Joshi (ed.), Philosophy of Value-Oriented Education: Theory and Practice: Proceedings of the National Seminar, 18–20 January 2002. Indian Council of Philosophical Research. pp. 473 (2002)