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HomeIndiaGovernanceHow Maneka Gandhi plans to scare away the ‘monster’ under children’s beds

How Maneka Gandhi plans to scare away the ‘monster’ under children’s beds

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Union minister Maneka Gandhi will be releasing her new book for children — inspired by her granddaughter — next month.  

New Delhi: Union Minister Maneka Gandhi has once again donned a storyteller’s hat. The Minister for Women and Child Development is all set to release her new children’s book, There’s a Monster under my Bed! And other terrible terrors.

“As children, we have all been scared of something — be it the fear of monsters or the fear that our parents won’t come back,” Gandhi said. “So, in this book, I have taken the fears up front, and on the next page made the fears appear like a good thing,” she told ThePrint.

“It’s mostly a pictorial depiction of fears, and the way the fears should be responded to.”

The minister had earlier written on her husband Sanjay Gandhi as well as on animals.

Her latest 56-page picture book, which is expected to be launched next month, is inspired by her four-year-old granddaughter.

“One day, she told me, ‘Dadi, I think there is a monster under my bed,’ so I told her, ‘Oh, how lucky! I wish I had a monster under my bed too!’” Gandhi said.

“And that made her not only get over her fear but think it is a good thing to have a monster under her bed!” she said. “With children, it is so easy to change perceptions, so I decided to pen down different kinds of fears children have and turn them upside down in this book.”

Not the first writer-minister

Gandhi is not the first in the Modi-led BJP government to author a children’s book. Just this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi too published a guide of sorts for children appearing for examinations called The Exam Warriors.

With quick mantras such as “compete with yourself” and “exams test your current preparation, not you. Chill!”, the Prime Minister had sought to ease children’s struggles during exams.

With her new book, Gandhi has sought to target even younger children, grappling with irrational fears.


Also read: Maneka Gandhi: The rare outspoken minister in the Modi government


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