Terms of Reference (ToR)

QUARTERLY PERIODICAL FOR GIRLS’ Education PROGRAM – Gupshup, 2025

Hiring OF A Consultant/agency

About Room to Read:

Room to Read (RtR) envisions a world in which all children can pursue a quality education, reach their full potential and contribute to their community and the world. To achieve this goal, RtR focuses on two areas where we believe we can have the greatest impact: Literacy and Gender equality through education in collaboration with communities and local governments across Asia and Africa.

Room to Read’s Gender Equality Portfolio (GEP) was launched in 2000 to promote gender equality in education and support girls to complete secondary school with the necessary life skills to negotiate key life decisions.  GEP has been operational in India since 2004 and currently works in 9 states^[1] supporting the state governments where the female literacy rate and the gender gap in literacy are below the national average. To achieve this goal we provide long-term educational support to girls averaging a period of 6 years which includes material support, academic support, Life Skill education, and mentoring. So far RtR has supported the education of more than 60000 girls. Room to Read partners with organizations- working on the ground- for the execution of the program, leveraging resources and skills, and developing a large base of stakeholders towards building ownership of the program.

About the Assignment:

GupShup is a Hindi periodical for adolescent boys and girls in the ages of 11-18. It is an interactive reading material with an aim to foster and encourage reading as a habit and lifelong passion. It covers a range of topics from current affairs to sports, news, views, stories, historical facts, interesting anecdotes, health tips, great achievers and role models, and a section dedicated to contributions from children.

The Gender Equality Portfolio aims to publish 3 such periodicals (junior and senior versions) in a year. Although the GEP is a program specifically designed for girls, this periodical is designed for girls and boys both– their reading and engagement with the text.  The junior version caters to boys and girls between 11-14 years and the senior version to that between 15-18 years (from GEP states

The below-mentioned tasks are to be performed by the consultant/agency/agency in close discussion and coordination with the GEP point person and team and are outlined as follows:

The three gupshups to be designed should be on following topics:

Life Skills for Gender Equality: Deconstructing emotional spectrum from the strands of masculinity focusing on adolescent age groups.

Climate Justice: South Asian Lens –

The idea of climate change takes a pivotal turn when placed in south Asian geo-politics where the voice around justice is growing as we progress further. A gupshup designed around youth engagement and active participation in this discourse. The gupshup should cover rural-urban nuances and capture challenges and everyday practices specific to India.

Financial Literacy: Hinges and Hiccups

A gupshup to be designed on financial literacy highlighting aspects of financial bargaining, financial planning and identifying personality traits around spending.  The content should be designed from an adolescents’ lense covering fixed and variable factors of financial planning.

This is a tentative suggestive outline of the topic which will evolve in the design process. There might be slight variance in themes but the larger domain, as outlined above, will remain intact.

SCOPE OF WORK

CONCEPTUALIZATION

1. The consultant/agency will be expected to conceptualize junior and senior issues of Periodical during the year
2. The GupShup will be developed in line with the proposed themes, along the lines of aforementioned topics, agreed upon between Room to Read and the consultant/agency. This theme may be conceptualized in discussion with the consultant/agency and the consultant/agency may also be required to give their inputs in identifying themes that will be relevant for both the girls and boys and will be instrumental in developing an understanding and commitment toward gender equality amongst the readers
3. Each GupShup is to have an array of reading and interactive materials like stories, news, articles, puzzles, games, etc. with one not exceeding 4 sides/pages
4. The language should be lucid, conversational and generate interest of adolescent readers.
5. The design and illustrations will be conceptualized by the consultant/agency such that each material is visually attractive, appealing, and caters to adolescents
6. The whole conceptualization exercise will be done by the consultant/agency independently based on the finalized themes and issues by the RtR point person. Necessary support will be provided by Room to Read during the conceptualization exercise.

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT

1. The consultant/agency is expected to create, develop, and write the finalized relevant content in form of narrative, storylines, or any other relevant form of the periodical, sort the letters received from the readers and type them for it to be a part of the Periodical. The consultant/agency will create content for each section that will be finalized in consultation with RtR
2. The content should be gender transformational in a way that it should enable the readers to envision and visualize a gender-equal world and go beyond gender stereotyping – to help them realize their own potential. The consultant/agency will undertake content and copy editing and proofreading ensuring that the content is error-free, relevant, and aligned with the GEP mandate and vision
3. The final designed version/dummy copy of the periodical will be checked and edited by the Consultant/agency and necessary changes will be made by the consultant/agency for printing as well as for online circulation in jpeg and pdf formats.

DESIGN AND ILLUSTRATIONS

1. The consultant/agency will be responsible for high-quality designing and laying out 3 Periodicals in a reader-friendly, creative, appealing, and innovative manner and placing illustrations or photographs wherever appropriate, required, and expected in a fun, interactive, and adolescent-friendly manner
2. The consultant/agency will also be responsible for formatting and layout of the text including making text editions once the layout is done
3. The consultant/agency is expected to conceptualize the ideas for the illustration that supplements the content and should be able to contribute to visualizations of gender equality and help in moving away from gender stereotyping child friendly and depict the Gupshup Mascots
4. The illustrations will be shared with the RtR point person and he/she will have the authority to approve the final illustrations.
5. Preparing a print-ready file of each Periodical. Designing and formatting will be in line with Room to Read’s branding guidelines

KEY DELIVERABLES

1. Post the conceptualization exercise, the consultant/agency will share a one-pager note/ illustrative demo/ visual document of the envisioned final copy of the periodical for further discussion and finalization of the document.
2. Final written and designed content of 3 junior and 3 senior issues of Periodical (within three months in Hindi proofread, typed, print ready, and online versions, and approved by RtR. Hindi should be simple or easily understandable. Administrative Hindi should be avoided.
3. Raw data i.e. All the entries, photographs, and reference material used in the periodical   to be handed over to RtR
4. The number of illustrations may vary as per the content of the periodicals and these illustrations must go along with the text. 
5. The Consultant/agency will share the final print-ready version of the periodicals both in PDF and Open File (editable) on a CD and/or over mail to Room to Read. The print-ready version and the online file  should be 9"x14" (Height x Width) page size
6. In case of any changes post the sharing of the final print-ready version with the Printer (by RtR), the consultant/agency might need to do all the edits and/ or changes in the format/design/ illustrations, etc.

The consultant/agency will need to provide services to complete all the above tasks in each time frame as outlined in this ToR and as will be mutually agreed to during the contract finalization. The consultant/agency will be expected to ideate on the kinds of material that can be created/put together and come to a final list in consultation and agreement with the point person at RtR. The quality of the final product and the timely submission of outputs will be the key performance indicators. 

The consultant/agency will be expected to collect all the material that RtR will provide from RtR office premises. The consultant/agency will also be required to come to the office 2-3 times for each issue of gupshups and when requested by RtR point person if there arise conditions for further discussions on the content/design or illustration

Contributions from RtR:

1. Provide entries received from the field, when applicable
2. Support in finalizing the design and illustrations
3. Monitor the assignment
4. Review, comment and approve the deliverables.

Note: For all the above-mentioned scope of work there will be a minimum of 5-6 rounds of feedback and suggestions that will come from Room to Read, and the consultant/agency should be open to that.

Experiences needed for the Assignment:

1. Professional Consultant/agency with demonstrated experience in creating innovative content development relating to children, and girls’ education and development issues.
2. Knowledge and work experience in content development using innovative ways.
3. Knowledge of current happenings on issues related to Gender, Climate Change and Life Skills education
4. Demonstrated experience in the design and illustration of materials related to children, and girls’ education and development issues.
5. Creative storytelling.
6. Ability to work independently and meet the given deadlines and adhere to the RtR guidelines.
7. Excellent in easy daily spoken Hindi.

Duration:

The duration of the contract is expected to start from February 2025 onward till the end of May, 2025. However, RtR can terminate the agreement if the consultant/agency is unable to deliver or respond to set timelines or if the assignment is not up to mark as per desired by RtR and aligned expectations.

The working days for each Edition will be 30 days with mutual agreement between the consultant/agency and RtR. Kindly refer to the table below for delivery timelines.

Sr	Editions	Delivery timelines
1	GupShup 1: Friendship and life skills- Junior and Senior Edition	May 2025
2	GupShup 2:  Climate Justice Junior and Senior Edition	May 2025
3	GupShup 3: Financial Literacy: Hinges and Hiccups Junior and Senior Edition	May 2025

Criteria of Evaluation:

1. Quality of Work Sample (20 marks)
2. Understanding of scope of work (20 marks)
3. Team size and experience (20 marks)
4. Experience in creative content writing (20 marks)
5. Experience in life skills and gender (20 marks)

Payment:

Payment will be done as per the payment plan laid below:

• 25% on signing of the contract
• 75% will be paid after submission of final draft of each gupshup- print ready and open files

HOW TO APPLY

Proposals are invited from the interested Consultant/agency for the above assignment and the last date for receiving the proposal is 5^th January, 2025 at procurement.india@roomtoread.org [do not copy anyone from RtR].

• Kindly submit emails with following subject lines:
  • EMAIL (1) : GUPSHUP  2025_TOPIC TITLE_ TECHNICALPROPOSAL

• The consultant/agency should apply with the following:

TECHNICAL PROPOSAL 

• A technical proposal which will outline the way this assignment will be approached.
• The proposal should clearly specify the title of the gupshup and justify relevant expertise of consultant/agency to in the domain. For example, “GUPSHUP 2025_Climate Justice_Technical Proposal”
• The agency/consultant can express interest in more than one theme, if they have relevant expertise and resources to justify the quality deliverables on time
• Cite relevant work experience and give samples
• The proposal should mention the timeline for completing the deliverables. The technical proposal should include an outline of the content and your approach for all the above-mentioned deliverables.
• Detailed CV of all the consultants involved in this project
• Pricing should include above requirements
• Only Shortlisted consultant/agency will be contacted and might be called for a face-to-face interaction with the panel
• Any incomplete application or process deviation, the proposals will automatically be rejected

Proposal received after the prescribed deadline will not be considered.

The TDS will be applicable on the consultancy fee. 

Selected Consultant/agency will be required to sign and abide by the Child Protection policy of Room to Read.  

For queries, please contact:

Mr. Kailash Vaishnav – kailash.vaishnav@roomtoread.org or Anupama Bhardwaj – Anupama.bhardwaj@roomtoread.org  

Tags Education and Education Technology (edtech) Others