Invest in children. And everything to do with children.

Invest in children. And everything to do with children. If we want to see any kind of change in this world, we must focus on the foundation. Raising children who hold the key to the future. Because the real investment is long-term. If we want to invest in sportspersons, we need to invest in playgrounds. If we need to build scientists and researchers, we need to invest not in edtech or online coding but in open and free learning as against classroom textbook learning.

Look at publishing. We complain about dwindling readers. But after 10 years, we let children drop out of reading because publishers are not investing in new voices in children’s authors. International authors are marketed aggressively and those are the names that children are aware of.

Many adults say they're not readers but the truth is the right book has never reached them because they dropped out as readers as kids. Especially true for urban middle-class readers who want to go beyond Chetan Bhagat but don’t want to go all the way to Amitav Ghosh.

Society is focused on teaching children curriculum instead of how to navigate the world. A child who learns to manage anxiety before an exam will go a long way in managing any kind of anxiety life poses. An interdependent child will look to collaborate instead of competing.

But unfortunately, apart from a revolution in edtech, we haven’t really seen any kind of big-ticket investment in this area. Because most of these investments will not show long term returns for a very long time. One way to do this outside classroom is through storytelling.

Invest in children’s books, thoughtful but entertaining cinema, education through play and

actual physical sports.

There is no dearth of money going around in this world. Only some of it needs to be invested in children and their better lives. Because if we take care of children, the future will take care of itself..