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

The Goa Campaign

The Goa campaign was powered with people’s activism and initiatives. It was an exemplary example of involvement and participation of the people, especially the youths, to respond to the issues surrounding them. Goa has emerged as a favorite spot for the tourists, Indian as well as International. However, the tourism industry has brought with it many social problems. People from backward areas of the country migrate to Goa in search of a livelihood. Not only men but also women and children in big numbers migrate to Goa. Uncertainties of employment make them vulnerable to exploitation. Let alone physical and economic exploitation of men and women, the children are even sexually exploited. Large inflow of foreign tourists to Goa has brought with it the malice of paedophilia.


To bring about a change in the mindset of the people, World Comics India helped Metamorphosis and UNIFEM in an impressive campaign that focused on serious issues related to displacement, migration, prostitution and child abuse. Comics Workshops were conducted in 5 colleges of Goa.  In the workshops, participants were asked to write their stories on these issues. Discussions took place on the issues centering 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. As an outcome of the workshops in five different colleges, 200 comics’ wall posters and 50 comics’ booklets were prepared.
 
In different parts of Goa, students formed groups and distributed it amongst the people. The wall posters were pasted in hotels, roadside food joints, bus stops, beauty parlours and even barbershops. All these comics were also displayed in an exhibition organised at Panaji’s ‘Kala – Academy’.

In the second phase of the campaign, forty participants were selected for ‘trainer workshops’. These trainers have formed a group under the name of ‘Goenkar Changemakers’. After the trainer workshop, these trainers have conducted workshops among the children of migrant communities. Workshops have been organised in different schools and shelter homes.  This group has also got support from the State Government’s Child and Women Welfare department to conduct the exhibition of the comics in sixty remote villages of Goa. The government has provided them financial assistance to organise a mobile van exhibition. Exhibitions have been conducted in schools and community centres of the villages.

Presently, the activities of group of comics trainers have been revived. Two workshops have been recently conducted with college students. More new workshop are in pipeline, and the focus of the group is on women issues particularly. 

The success of this campaign lays down in the ownership. All these students pasting comics’ posters on the streets had a sense of involvement in the campaign since they were the creators of the material. It also translated into a sense of responsibility among the youths to generate awareness in their community through their creations.