Comics R Not Only 4 Kids

Comics are not merely for kids any more. Some NGOs have joined hands to use this medium to tell young Indian men it is wrong to presume that "girlfriends must be meek and submissive and that a sexually aggressive woman is bad".

The Population Council and four other NGOS have brought out this set of comics, interwoven with messages on HIV/AIDS, in four languages - Bengali, English, Hindi and Telugu.

"The aim is to change social attitude and dispel the popular notion of masculinity that makes young men in urban slums indulge in violence against women and use condoms only when having a relationship with sex workers," Vijaya Nidadavolu, Population Council's communication head, told IANS.

The comics have been titled - "Josh Mein Hosh" (Passion with Sense), "Khoon Ka Katra" (Just a drop of blood), "Savdhan Senior" (On your guard, senior) and "Pyar Ka Packet" (A packet of love).

About 250,000 copies of these pocket-sized comics have been sent for distribution in urban slums of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad. These comics were produced in partnership with Prerana-Delhi, Apnalaya-Mumbai, CINI Asha-Kolkata and Divya Disha-Hyderabad.

"There was an urgency to bring out these educational comic books because in 2006, about 30 percent of HIV infections were reported in the 15 to 20 age group," Nidadavolu said.

"Existing literature showed that young Indian men subscribe to norms of masculinity that lead to risky behaviour and to change this discussions were held with young men in four cities to understand their media habits, message retention from HIV campaigns, myths and misconceptions," she added.

Participants were encouraged to relate real life incidents so that these comics echoed true stories. The draft stories were pre-tested in discussions with young men in urban slums and their feedback was incorporated in the final version, Nidadavolu said.

Twenty-year-old Ramu, who was born and brought up on the Sealdah platform in Kolkata and is a school dropout, was involved in the creation of these comic books.

"We thought the stories were really nice. We suggested some changes because we find it difficult to read comics. We are not used to sequencing. We also wanted the comics to be small enough to carry in our pockets," Ramu told IANS.

"I am looking forward to seeing these books made with our stories. I learnt a lot about sketching, comic book-writing and want to make sure that these books go into the hands of young men like me."

Others like Ramu suggested that comic books should have an adult look but the covers should not be too bold. The books also had to be packaged in a manner so that they could not be identified as HIV-related and the information on HIV had to be woven into the story. Such information was considered important as India has over 5.1 million HIV/AIDS patients.

"The state and district AIDS control societies in Andhra Pradesh and Delhi have integrated elements of their campaign into the comic book series and have endorsed the products," Nidadavolu said.

"Several NGOs have also been approached to integrate this package within existing outreach activities and to distribute the comics," she added.