The Hindu : Karnataka / Belgaum News : Song, drama to be used in spreading AIDS awareness

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 08, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Belgaum

Song, drama to be used in spreading AIDS awareness

By Our Staff Correspondent

BELGAUM, DEC. 7. Songs, dramas and other arts are most effective in carrying social messages to illiterate masses, the theatre person Natyabhushan Engai Balappa said here on Tuesday.

He was addressing folk artistes at a workshop on AIDS awareness organised by the Song and Drama Division of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Karnataka AIDS Prevention Society here on Tuesday.

The three-day workshop aims at preparing packages to spread awareness on HIV/AIDS among the rural masses by using troupes to spread the message in an educative and entertaining manner.

Their evaluation by experts from the division and the society would help ensure that the purpose of the project is met.

The select packages will be exhibited all over the State.

Mr. Balappa, who inaugurated the workshop, said that songs and dramas had played a significant role in the freedom struggle and in solving socio-cultural problems.

These media have the advantage of being able to explain the most difficult of subjects in a simple manner which was understood by an illiterate person.

Dramas had more than entertainment value, he said.

They were intellectually crafted to work as a mirror to society and its problems.

"There are doctors to treat physical ailments, and the arts such as songs and dramas come in handy in the treatment of diseases afflicting society,'' he added.

H.V. Krishna Murthy, Deputy Director of the division, Bangalore, said that select programmes would be featured in at least 1,000 villages in the State till the end of March 2005.

Most cultural formats were developed to inform, educate and communicate issues of socio-economic and cultural importance to the masses.

Yakshagana, Burrakatha, Nautanki, Bhavai, Tamasha, Karapalamela, Beesukamsale, Geegee Pada, Sri Krishna Parijatha and so on were primarily aimed at communicating thoughts or messages of patriotism, moral values, religious and so on. Thus, cultural troupes would be oriented towards communicating AIDS awareness, he added.

Thirteen troupes consisting of 105 artistes are participating in the workshop.

Another workshop will be held in Bangalore shortly, Mr. Murthy said.

Balkrishna Rao and K. Murthy of the society; the Senior District Information Officer, Baswaraj Kambi, and the District Coordinator of Nehru Youth Centre, S. Jamadar, were present on the occasion.

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