Barkha, the graded reading series is developed for students of Grade I and II. The objective of the series is to provide opportunity to young children to engage with books and read meaningfully. Gradation across levels has been achieved by variation in syntax, number of words and complexity of sub-plots. Barkha facilitates reading for pleasure in children and helps them become fluent readers. Children find everyday events as interesting as stories; hence, all the stories of Barkha are based on their daily life experiences. The stories of Barkha are spread out in four levels and five themes (i) Relationships; (ii) Birds-Animals; (iii) Musical Instruments, Games and Toys; (iv) Around us and (v) Food. Another objective of the reading series is to provide plenty of books to children. It also helps in cognitive development of children in all curricular domains.

It is suggested that Barkha books be kept at a place in the classroom where children have easy access.

Anjali Tiwari and Seema Sharma, Senior Consultants, Varsha Singhal, Teacher Fellow from ISLP, NCERT; Kiran Sharma, Junior Project Fellow, DEE, NCERT; Nidhi Kanwar, Associate Professor, Mata Sundri College; Ekta Goel, Teacher, Delhi Administration, Delhi; Chanchal Chauhan, Proofreader (Contractual), Publication Division, NCERT; Anshul Gupta and Usha Tanwar, DTP Operators, DEE, NCERT, Surender Kumar, In charge, DTP Cell, Sanju Sharma, DTP Operator (Contractual), Publication Division, NCERT.