A new media initiative by the Population Council uses colourful visual narratives with local flavour to create awareness about HIV prevention strategies. PAROMITA PAIN
Reflecting realities: A storyboard taking shape at one of the discussion sessions.
YOU can be forgiven if you thought names like “Josh Mein Hosh” or “Shabdhan Senior” belonged to two of the numerous, B-grade masala movies that the Indian film industry is known to churn out with alarming regularity. But ̶
0;Josh Mein Hosh” and “Shabdhan Senior” do more than just entertain. A joint endeavour of the Population Council, Apnalaya (Mumbai), Divya Disha (Hyderabad), Prerana (Delhi) and CINI Asha (Kolkata), these are “street” comics based on real life experiences shared by young men from the lower economic strata, adapted to communicate effective HIV prevention strategies.
Education campaigns regarding HIV aren’t new in India. What makes this one special, as Project Director and Communication Strategist from the Population Council, Vijaya Nidadavolu, says, is that “We feel there are very few media initiatives with HIV information that they actually like and enjoy. These comics are also an intimate media tool that gives young men an opportunity to read or look at them in private. The primary audience are the low-literate to semi-literate slum-based youth.” Population Council research has shown that such young men believe it is cool to be violent, that condoms must be worn only with sex workers and not with regular partners, that girlfriends must be meek and submissive, that a sexually aggressive woman is a “bad” woman and that it is alright to control women.
Risky behaviour
“Young men in urban slums in India are particularly open to infection because they engage in such risky behaviours in the name of mardangi (manliness), ” says Nidadavolu. What does the idea of mardangi
imply? At the workshops, which were held to facilitate an exchange of experiences, opinions and information, the answers ranged from, “Girls who walk stylishly (thumak thumak) deserve a whistle” to “If I wear a condo
m I won’t be able to enjoy sex…”
Very general entry points were used to start talking about sexuality and masculinity. “We asked them if they had girlfriends and how they met them, among other things. Questions centred on stuff like, “Bolo koin line chala ra
he ho kya?”, “Kuch suraksha lete ho, sex karne ke time?” and “Kis kis ke saath pehente ho?” We spoke about the lack of information on health available to young men that took their r
eality into account and that spoke their language. This made them more responsive,” says Nidadavolu. Sometimes they were uncomfortable with the female investigator and preferred only talking to the male facilitator. “But by and large they were thrilled that someone was interested in what they had to say. These stories and conversations were very inspiring. No story you see in the comics is of one particular young man. They are a combined narrative that the designer then worked with,” says Nidadavolu.
Being comics, illustrations form the basis of the narrative. The drawings are simple and to a refined eye the colours may even seem lurid. But the real power lies in the stories. “Josh Mein Kya Hosh Ka Koi Kaam Nahi?” as
ks the opening lines of “Josh Mein Hosh” and the story starts. A moment’s carelessness and a condom isn’t used. Info about HIV, how it spreads, what kind of tests are done to confirm its presence and what are the symptoms are the issues on which information is given. The stories were structured to ensure that they were primarily entertaining, but also provided entry-points for weaving in core messages on HIV prevention. The titles were carefully chosen. “Pyar Ka Packet” obviously implies a condom and “Khoon Ka Khatra” is all about how blood must be handled carefully to prevent the spread of HIV.
Peer networks
“One of the strategies of this project is to ensure that the comics reach young men through peer networks — both formal and informal,” says Nidadavolu. Babu, 22, Peer Educator in CINI’s urban programmes for young people, and also a part of the comics project, has some interesting insights. Asked to gather together young people for the Kolkata leg of the project, Babu says, “It was a challenge gathering everyone on that day for the discussion as it was Rakhi. But the discussions were very good. When the dadas and didis came back a second time to show us some rough comics all the boys greeted us with a lot of enthusiasm. This time we were shown the rough drawings and stories and they
asked what we thought of them. We told Vishwa dada to change the look a little bit. We found it a bit difficult to read the comics — because we are not used to the sequencing. We also wanted the comics to be small so that we coul
d carry them in our pockets.”
Having learnt a lot about sketching and comic story writing, Babu today is eager to see the comics reach other youth. Available in Hindi, Telugu, Bengali and English, the Council has been organising dissemination meetings in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad where a broad spectrum of organisations with slum-based programmes participate. For more information contact the Population Council at: +911124642901/2
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