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Pustak Khidki
Pustak Khidki
Inspiring a culture of reading with portable libraries
Our latest project is Pustak Khidki !
Stories And Books Can Play A Powerful Role In Children’s Educational Journey
They are carriers of generational wisdom, cultural traditions, boundless imagination, and reflections of diverse lives and experiences from across the globe. They convey values and life lessons in a manner that is engaging, relatable, and deeply impactful.
Through stories, we can also foster:
- Language and communication skills
- Imagination and Creativity
- Emotional intelligence, Empathy and compassion
- Cultural awareness and sensitivity
- Moral and ethical development
- A lifelong love for reading
Open books lead to open minds! But often the books are kept in the closed cupboards or in a stacked up pile, somewhere away from the reach of young hands. When a teacher or a parent takes out the books and hands them out to the children, it can be perceived as another task an adult asks them to do rather than their free will to open the pages and find the magic within. Pustak Khidki tackles this scenario with a beautiful product that is designed to make the books visible, accessible and inviting.
Pustak Khidki is a portable cloth bookshelf that we can hang on the wall at the height appropriate for the children. Pustak Khidki acts as a portable library and parents/teachers can replace the books on daily/weekly basis as per the need. Kids can see the covers of the books, they can easily take out the books they want and dive into whichever version of the world they prefer that day through the books!
Small Pustak Khidki has six pockets and each pocket can hold 2-3 small books in them. Big Pustak Khidaki has eight big pockets and holds 3-4 books in each pocket.
ChikuPiku Foundation wants all Anganwadi centres, preschool classrooms and playgroups, care centres, clinics, institutes, orphanages and children’s hospitals to have Pustak Khidki hanging on their walls. ChikuPiku Foundation wants children to have access to colourful, meaningful books and stories that shape their worldview and make them curious, inquisitive, active human beings rather than the bored, uninspired pupils or passive consumers of screen media. Let Pustak Khidki be the trigger to start their self-motivated journey of understanding the world around them. Let Pustak Khidki assist the families and teachers to make the environment more child-centric and conducive to multidimensional development.
Pilot Phase - Activities and observations.
The pilot of this project was initiated in June 2024 with more than 100 Anganwadi centers in Koregaon district of Satara. With enthusiastic support from the supervisors and all the teachers, we were able to reach some of the remotest areas of Satara. The pilot involved book and bookshelf donation, training and orientation session, year round active communication channel to share and receive updates, visit to a few centers for qualitative assessment, feedback and outcome study.
Key Observations:
- Pustak Khidki has become an integral part of classroom routines.
- Children independently interact with books, enjoying illustrations and creating their own stories—even before they can read fluently.
- Teachers use ChikuPiku storybooks to introduce new concepts, such as scientists’ stories for science learning.
- Teachers suggested including shorter stories with simple sentences to support emerging readers.
Light up a child’s world by putting books in little hands.
Donate to ChikuPiku and help bring the joy of reading to more children through Pustak Khidki
Open books lead to open minds! But often the books are kept in the closed...
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Pustak Khidki Gallery
