Pugloo is running around the house, all excited as it’s his 10thbirthday. At his party later in the day, his grandmother hands him a gift from his late grandfather. A gift that is going to change his life forever, but when he tears open the big package, he is highly disappointed at the sight of a book. The book is one on Indian laws and rights, which eventually becomes a fun learning tool for the boy.
Lawtoons has been created by Ahmadabad-based sisters, Kanan and Kelly Dhru. It is a crowdfunded project and the first part focuses mainly on right to equality and freedom of expression.
Kanan, founder of Research Foundation for Governance in India says: “The journey so far has been very interesting: it was very reassuring when our crowdfunding campaign got oversubscribed by 125 per cent, making us realise the potential of this idea. We are currently exploring different publishing houses to take this initiative forward.”Graphics are one of the oldest forms of story-telling known to human civilisation and communicate effectively to people of all ages. These sisters fee that the useful information about citizenship, democracy, laws and rights that children learn in their schools through the civics curriculum is often passed off as ‘dull and boring’.
Lawtoons is a one of its kind project that will illustrate the laws and legal rights and make them easier to understand as well as fun to learn for kids.
“We have been giving presentations in schools and colleges on laws, rights and democracy through our initiative Research Foundation for Governance in India. We want to reach out to a much wider audiences and therefore got into comics, which is a medium that is loved by children,” added Kelly, a Bachelor of Civil Law and MPhil in Law from University College, Oxford University.
The team consists of two lawyers, two designers and one administrative head. Along with this, the company has Anish Daogalupu, founder of Punkhs and two consultants, Margie Sastry, who has 27 years of experience with Amar Chitra Katha and Sekhar Mukherjee, a professor at NID working on animation and cartooning.
“We have received funding to distribute 1,000 copies at this stage and then we are looking to tie up with publishers. RFGI has 3,000 volunteers. Social media is also very crucial in today’s times, and deserves importance, so we are very active on our Facebook page as well,” adds Kanan.