(Top) Education minister Brishen Patel inaugurates Rashtriya Bal Rang Mahotsav in Patna and children participate in the Kilkari event in Gaya, on Friday. Pictures by Ashok Sinha and Suman

Performance of children from 10 states, a theatre festival of four days — residents are in for a treat.

Kilkari Bihar Bal Bhavan inaugurated the Rashtriya Bal Rang Mahotsav in Patna on Children’s Day. Students associated with the bal bhavans of 10 states have come for the children’s theatre festival.

The first day of the festival included performance of children from Bengal. They presented a Chhau show based on the tale of Mahishasurmardini.

Among the participating states in the festival are Maharashtra, Bengal, Rajasthan, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Uttar Pradesh. The festival will end on Monday.

Apart from the Bengal team’s performance, Namaskar Ji Namaskar from the Bihar troupe received loud applause. Another performance on the life history of Amrapali, a royal courtesan in Vaishali, was liked too as was a group dance to Taare Zameen Par.

Similar shows were conducted at the Kilkari’s Bhagalpur and Gaya branches too.

Kilkari director Jyoti Parihar said: “This is the sixth Rashtriya Bal Rang Mahotsav that Kilkari has organised. So far, the participation has been very good. We hope to continue like this.”

On Friday, Kilkari also felicitated nine children from Bihar with the Balshree award in recognition of their talent. The competition was held in October. Winners in the different disciplines, including performing arts and scientific innovation, were felicitated during the inauguration of the theatre festival.

Education minister Brishen Patel was the chief guest. At the inauguration, where he paid floral tributes to Jawaharlal Nehru — Children’s Day is celebrated on his birth anniversary — Patel said: “A mid-day meal scheme would be launched at the Kilkari Bihar Bal Bhavan. I would urge the Kilkari administration to start classes apart from conducting extra-curricular activities. Kilkari should be a medium to develop personality of the children. Excluding teaching won’t help realise the goal.”

Principal secretary, education, R.K. Mahajan hailed Kilkari for starting the national festival on Children’s Day.

On Kilkari’s success story, director Parihar added: “Kilkari has been working for underprivileged children since 2008. It provides all kinds of facilities the children are bereft of elsewhere. It provides them vocational training to help them build personality and open job avenues in the future.”