This article is written by Saumya Raval, 3rd year student, Gujarat National Law University and an intern at Lawtoons.
“Ten-year-old Pugloo runs around the house, announcing “It’s my birthday.” At his party later in the day, his grandmother hands him a gift from his late grandfather. He tears open the big package but is disappointed at the sight of a book. The book, on Indian laws and rights, eventually becomes a fun learning tool for the boy. Pugloo is the central character of Lawtoons, a comic book developed by Ahmedabad-based sisters Kanan and Kelly Dhru launched on November 23rd, 2017 at the Oxford Bookstore, Connaught Place, New Delhi.
It is a universally accepted fact that graphics and drawings are one of the oldest forms of story-telling known to human civilisation. Drawings and cartoons reach out and communicate much easily and effectively to children. Lawtoons is striving on the very same idea with a sole motto to empower young minds through the world of cartoons. Cartoons are a medium through which at Lawtoons we want the young minds to perceive and comprehend complex yet fundamental essential laws easily.
After thoroughly examining the present day civic curriculum in majority of the schools, it was observed that often the system is ignorant about the basic legal education and doesn’t provide scope to young minds from understanding laws and their fundamental rights. This unfortunately, results in a society where most people find it difficult to relate to the idea of laws and legal systems.
The useful information about citizenship, democracy, laws and rights that children learn in their schools through the civics curriculum is often not effectively communicated, and passed off as ‘dull and boring’. This often discourages young minds from understanding the laws and rights better. Even upon growing up, a common person is likely to be intimidated by the bulky law books full of legal jargon. This unfortunately, results in a society where most people find it difficult to relate to the idea of laws and legal systems, and feel disconnected.
The Lawtoons team have had the experience in giving presentations on laws and fundamental rights in schools that has made them realize that most people do not understand the nuances of the system and how it works, and law books, through the use of technical words make it all the more difficult to understand even the most basic laws, which affect each and every one of us.
Lawtoons is a solution that is going to bridge the legal system with the general public by making them easily understand how law affects everyone. Through the comic, Lawtoons will make interesting and inspiring cartoons on different laws and rights, which children and grown-ups will really enjoy reading.
- The team at Lawtoons have partnered with the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad for the illustrations and design, and have been consulting children’s story-writers and child psychologists for the content of the stories.
- At the book’s launch, Lawtoons introduced a compendium on Fundamental Rights, focusing on simplifying the understanding of the constitutional aspect of Fundamental Rights.
- This compendium is prepared with an extensive empirical research study conducted over a period on the target audience itself i.e. Children/students.
- The compendium on the fundamental rights has been highly applauded by the children, academic community, legal fraternity and any other reader per se belonging to any sector.
- Lawtoons is designed in such a manner that it fits each and every mindset.
- We have held workshops in the Municipal Schools as well as in international board school in Ahmedabad in order to understand the sensitivity of the issue of unawareness about law in general in the children.
- We then offered them the Lawtoons compendium and asked what they preferred to study from – their textbooks or the comic. The answer, as you can guess, was a unanimous vote for Lawtoons!
We believe that there is an immense potential in the Lawtoons as an initiative towards basic legal education. By bringing together the idea of laws using the form of cartoons, Lawtoons can have tremendous impact by changing the way people, especially the children, perceive the idea of law. Lawtoons is also an educational alternative to the existing world of comics and fictions, which the parents would want their children to read and watch. Inspired by the enthusiasm and excitement around the prototype, the project Lawtoons now aims to create and publish a series of these comics and also launch a mobile application of the cartoons.
The scalability of Lawtoons is unimaginable. A wide range of crucial and sensitive laws which unfortunately have been disseminated not much into public domain can be brought into light through its further editions. Lawtoons plans to inculcate various sensitive and crucial legislation in its further editorials are always are open to ideas from the public at large. In order to spread awareness pertaining to voting process in the elections, a specialised edition is also released earlier which discusses the whole election process, its technicalities and concerned laws in a very fun and comic manner.
Lawtoons’ essentially plans to increase the legal awareness from the schools itself. Lawtoons can also be made part and parcel of the school curriculum. The team have received an applauding response from various lawyers, judges, academicians, Civil Society Organisations (NGOs), practicing advocates, policy makers and most importantly the students themselves. They are very forthcoming in reading Lawtoons and always demand for the next issue when so ever it is released.
Storytelling as a medium, with visuals, is always engaging for children and we thought a fun handbook would have a better reach.
Lawtoons is an initiate of a pre-established policy-research organisation called, founded by Ms. Kanan Dhru, Research Foundation for Governance: in India which is based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat and have been undertaking the task of legislative drafting and policy advising, under the supervision of Ms. Kelly Dhru, over more than a decade. Ms. Kanan is also working on blending the two most isolated streams i.e. Technology and Law through another initiative called LawForMe which is also based on the motto of pubic dissemination of law in general through the means of creative graphics and pictures. Her initiative has awarded her the HiiL Innovating Justice Award – Innovative Idea 2014.
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