‘Fake location’, ‘Oh! OTP’, ‘Password ki jaankari (Information about password)’ —- reads the titles from comic strips pasted on the walls of Basti Vikas Kendra in Trilokpuri in the national capital.
Cyber Salamat, a campaign run in the area by cartoonist Sharad Sharma, is an initiative to raise awareness about internet safety, misinformation and digital privacy.
“Around 40-45 children and young people are part of workshops being conducted at the place,” Sharma told THE WEEK. He further added that in this digitalised age, everybody has access to the internet, however, they hardly know “how to handle social media”.
“It’s been over six months that Cyber Salaamat was started in the area,” says Gulaf Shah, one of the coordinating members of the program. Gulaf Shah is joined by other two coordinators and ten volunteers who help operate the campaign.
World Comics India, Sharma’s efforts of promoting ‘grassroots comics’, uses the medium of cartoons and comics to help marginalised groups and people from conflict-ridden places have their share of say.
According to Sharma, “real issues are often neglected by the media” and hence, producing “localised content” which can be distributed among the respective communities, is the primary focus of the workshops held during these programs.
“Immediate audience is the local people,” Sharma pointed out. “As some stories must be narrated locally, among the local residents or community members.”
He believes discussing a problem within the respective neighbourhoods is an efficient step towards addressing the issue at hand. This brings the subject into recognition and boosts problem-solving.
In the early nineties, while working as a political cartoonist, Sharma started introducing cartoons in content designed for a literacy campaign in Rajasthan. Determined to help the “repressed stories” be told, Sharma left his full-time gig and started campaigning through his comic revolution.
World Comics India — in participation with larger NGOs, educational institutions and organisations such as UNICEF, International Committee of the Red Cross and NCERT — has conducted over 1,500 workshops all across the country and made some strides globally as well, training over lakhs of people through the initiative.
“We never ask people if they can draw or not,” says the cartoonist. “We always ask if they have a story to share.”
The other projects include campaigns directed at encouraging refugees in New Delhi to express their stories through comics, advocating for women empowerment in Rajasthan and addressing the issues of homeless in Kashmiri Gate in the capital city.
The project Nomadic Tribes — aiming to address discrimination and social exclusion faced by the Banjara, Kalbeliya, Nat and Rajnat tribes in Rajasthan —- has been run in the state for the last five years. The initiative has also been supported by the Embassy of the Netherlands, he said.
“The best bit is that comics only require a pen and a paper,” Sharma remarks. “Since no colour is needed, photocopying and distributing the papers make the process easy.”
The copies are therefore easily accessible or even sold at a low price.
