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Pitara launches India by Kids
Publication: New Indian Express (City Express)
Date: January 22, 2001
Internet might have brought before you the whole world, giving you a wide variety of choices. But what does it hold for children? Hardly anything, many children feel.
Bearing some sites, which tend to fill up their web space with school syllabi, the web has little space for children below 15 years of age. Here is a portal, www.pitara.com, which offers a whole new world where they can express their feelings and give shape to their ideas.
"We don't teach nor take up the school syllabi to be an extension of the school on the Net," Pitara Kids Network founder and chief executive officer Ajay Jaiman said.
Speaking to this paper, he said his aim was to allow children to think and grow as they liked, using Internet as a tool, he said and added that "they should be able to see for themselves."
"Pitara, a magic box, is a part of Hindi folklore. True to its name, the portal offers a whole new world for children," he said.
"Children are far more intelligent, sensitive, an concerned than we believe them to be," he added.
"Education is not end in itself. To grow doesn't mean that children should undergo grueling academic sessions for years together. It's about helping children to grow naturally. "Education has a higher goal - of helping our children become intelligent human beings," he said, lamenting that the present system didn't allow them to grow naturally.
From stories, folk tales and poems to facts about our planet and its environment; from craft activities to news reports; from math and puzzles to proverbs, limericks and tongue twisters, Pitara is truly a treasure trove of surprises as the word indicates.
At present the portal, which gets 30 per cent funding from ICICI, gets on an average 10 millions hits and one million pages views every month. "We would like to be the best portal for kids." Jaiman said. For more than two years Pitara.com has been providing opportunities to give vent to their creative faculties.
Competition: With a view to encourage children to use Internet to develop their creative skills, the company, in association with Intel, has undertaken a campaign, covering Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Bangalore. "About 700 students have participated in the road-show we organised here," he said.
Christened India By Kids, the competition aims to encourage students to think in a holistic manner and recognise that a country is about people and the manner in which they live and build a network of communities.
The participants will be given some broad themes that will serve as an entry point into the vast fabric of life and encourage a child probe the theme from various perspectives.
In school category, a team which stands first in the context will win 10 computers (for the school) and a trophy and a set of compact discs for the members of the team.
The runner-up team will get four computers for its school and trophy and CDs for the members. The second runner-up will receive three computers and a trophy and CDs.
Students belonging to different schools and places can also team up to participate in the competition and win prizes.
"Our endeavour is to make Pitara.com a leading e-destination for children world over," he summed up.
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