World Comics has initiated many campaigns in different part of the country by using comics. Grassroots Comics ensures community’s ownership in content which guaranteed people’s part icipation in such campaigns. Read more about it

Corporat Punishment Capaign

The school teachers of Maharajganj in Uttar Pradesh are a worried lot. Gone are the days when they could punish students at will, for the most ridiculous reasons, slap them, beat them with sticks, or make them sit or stand for hours in uncomfortable, painful and awkward positions. The age-old notions of a good teacher – a strict disciplinarian who would use the rod liberally on his students – is being questioned and challenged, by the students themselves.

The students of Maharajganj have raised a new slogan, “Ab na sazaa khayake padi, Chadi Ke Lagal Hathkadi” [There will be no corporal punishment anymore, the stick has been handcuffed!]. And the medium they have chosen to express their ideas is one which would have been dismissed by most teachers as being frivolous and non-serious – Comics.

Since May 2008, hundreds of children have participated in comics workshops across villages of Maharajganj, where they learn to make comics themselves and then, teach other children to make comics. Helping the children voice their rebellion against corporal punishment are three non-profit organisations – World Comics India, Gram Niyojan Kendra, and Plan India. The children who are responsible for initiating this revolt are members of the Babu Beheni Manch (Forum for Boys and Girls), a forum existing in several villages of Maharajganj.

The fight against corporal punishment has taken the form of a campaign. In the first phase, two comics trainers’ workshop were held by WCI in May and June, each attended by around twenty children. At the beginning of the workshop, most of these children, despite being victims of corporal punishment, agreed that some degree of it was necessary to discipline and educate children. At the end of the four-day workshop, they would become the most active crusaders against all forms of corporal punishment. In the second phase, each of these newly trained and sensitised comics trainers, in turn, taught children in their own villages to understand and make comics against corporal punishment. The idea of “polemics through comics” has caught the imagination of the villagers of Maharajganj, so much so that even adults have come to the young comics trainers requesting them to teach how to make comics.

The comics did not merely reflect the anger of children against punishment in school. They also brought to the fore related issues like gender discrimination and the often-invisible violence within homes. Around twenty comics’ workshops have been conducted in the villages by the comics trainers. With every workshop, there was a new association and a new story of corporal punishment. Some children were humiliated in schools for being late or for not paying the fees while girls complained of biases against them at home. Individual stories have got a voice through these comics.

The present focus of the Chadi Ke Lagal Hathkadi campaign is on content development – to identify issues related to corporal punishment, and present them through different forms of comics like comics strips, comics posters and eight-page comics booklets. The most interesting aspect of the campaign is that it is entirely managed by the children themselves – whether it is conducting workshops, organising logistics, or writing songs and slogans. In its final phase, the campaign will produce and display comics based on these issues in the villages and streets of Maharajganj. The children have decided to use theater, dance, songs, wall paintings, radio shows as additional media of expression. A bicycle rally has also been planned to conclude the campaign in Maharajganj

The month of September will be an exciting month, when civil society and the larger community in Maharajganj is expected to respond to the efforts of the children. It is hoped that the positive effects of the campaign will not remain confined to Maharajganj.