Lullabies are the first songs that babies hear. They are filled with stories, emotions, and melody and are passed down from one generation to the other creating bonding experiences for life.

The First Songs project is a collaborative initiative between Billion Readers (BIRD), Pratham Education Foundation, and EkStep Foundation focused on celebrating the joy and power of lullabies from across India. The project collects and documents lullabies in various Indian languages—songs that families and caregivers have passed down for generations. The goal is to celebrate this important part of India’s oral heritage while highlighting the emotional, linguistic, and cultural value of lullabies for young children.

The First Songs website (firstsongs.billionreaders.org) is the project’s central hub featuring over 100 lullabies across 13 Indian languages, including Tamil, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, and Assamese. Each lullaby is presented with a sing-along video, original lyrics, and options for transliteration and translation. Visitors can contribute their own lullabies, find recording guidelines, and submit songs through the site.

The website is a growing repository designed as an open, community-driven collection, accepting new lullaby contributions from the public. Families, educators, and researchers can explore, listen to, and use the lullabies in their own context. The collection fosters intergenerational connections by making these songs widely accessible and easy for families to rediscover together.

Know more about 'The First Songs' project: here