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1. ‘GIRL CHILD’ CAMPAIGN
About the campaign
For almost one year, World Comics India has been spearheading a campaign in the Barmer district of Western Rajasthan to create awareness on girl child issues. This particular belt has one of the lowest girl child sex ratios in the country. Since the pre-natal sex determination technique is not widely available here, girls are often killed immediately after they are born. Various techniques are used to kill them. They are fed with milk laced with opium or simply strangulated to death. Then there is prevalence of child marriage and unmatched marriages, which too is very common. In fact there are villages in this region, where a groom has arrived after 200 years, simply because there were no girls around.
To initiate a debate on girl child rights, World Comics India conducted a number of workshops, where children and adults were trained in comics making. They in turn used their skills in preparing more than 300 comics posters on issues pertaining to the girl child.
Together with this material, WCI along with a local organization, Vikalp and ‘Dream on Wheels’ organised a bike rally towards the end of January 2006. Led by International bike racer Bittoo Sondhi, this rally travelled from Barmer to Jodhpur, making stopovers at around 100 villages. During such stopovers, the campaign material in the form of comics was distributed and discussions were initiated.
Read more about the campaign on its online blog www.halfworld.blogspot.com
Dariya ki Kasam (Swear by the River) is a 19-minute film, based on our campaign in Rajasthan for the rights of Girl Child.
Dariya ki Kasam traces the life of a young girl Kabbu, who lives in one of the villages in Barmer. She is in eighth class and does not know whether she would allowed to study further. Through this campaign, she acquires the skill of expressing her needs and concerns through comics. She experiences a change in herself. From a shy girl, she transforms into one, who is addressing men and women from the stage.
This film is the story of Kabbu and how she could be a role model for others, not only in this region but in the entire country.
2. GOA CAMPAIGN
About The campaign
Here was an example of how common people, especially the youth can be involved in a campaign. Goa has emerged as a favourite spot for the tourists from the countries of the entire world. Along with maximum gains accrued by the tourism industry, what also have come along are lots of problems. People from backward areas of the country migrate to Goa in search of a livelihood. Most of the people coming to Goa are from the needy section of the society. After reaching Goa these people are easy preys to exploitative condition. Apart from adults be it men or women, even the children from the migrant community have to face extreme exploitation. More and more foreign tourists coming to Goa have brought the malice of paedophilia.
To change the mindset of the people, World Comics India helped Metamorphosis and UNIFEM in an impressive campaign. Comics Workshops were conducted in 5 colleges of Goa. These workshops covered serious issues like displacement, migration, prostitution and child abuse. In the workshops, participants were asked to write stories on these issues. Discussions took place on the issues centring round the stories written by the participants. Then they were systematically coached and were given preparatory exercise in sketching and drawing. All the comics were completed on the third day. The same process was done in other 4 colleges. As an outcome to the workshops, 200 comics’ wallposters and 50 comics’ booklets were developed.
In different parts of Goa, students formed groups and distributed it among the people. The wall posters were pasted in hotels, road side food joints, bus stops, beauty parlours and even barber shops. All these comics were also displayed in an exhibition organised at Panaji’s “Kala - Academy”.
In the phase two of the campaign, forty participants were selected for ‘trainer workshops’. These trainers have formed a group under the nomenclature of “Goenkar Changemakers’. Post to the trainer workshop, these trainers have conducted workshops among the children of migrant communities. Workshops have been organised in different schools and shelter homes.
Even this group also got support from the state Government’s Child and Women Welfare department to exhibiting the comics in sixty remote villages of Goa.
The success of this campaign lays down in ownership. All these students pasting comics’ posters in the street had a sense of involvement in the campaign since they were the creators of the material and it was not given to them (to use).
Current status/ about the local initiatives
After the workshops with around 400 youngsters, there were 200 comics and 50 booklets, which added a leaf in the success story of the campaign. 35 participants from these workshops were selected for TOT. Recently, these trainers have been working with the kids of juvenile and migration homes. They have formed an organization called ‘Goankar Chain Makers’. The State Commision for women and child provided them financial assistance to organise a mobile van exhibition. These activists took them to sixty villages and organised exhibitions in the schools and community centres of these villages. |
