Discovering local issues in Madurai
A three-day comics workshop was organized by World Comics India in association with DHAN Foundation and HCL Foundation in which around 47 participants took part. The group, consisting of NGOs workers and college students, raised a whole lot of issues related to the local environment. They discussed ideas like switching to organic farming, not using chemical pesticides, how forests are protected by having temples located there, etc. Through the workshop, the participants were taken through the process of identifying and writing stories about local issues and then they were given orientation to the medium of comics. One of the most important things participants learnt from the workshop was the importance of including local issues in the discourse around stories and thereby connecting the local to the global. As most of the participants made comics for the frst time in their lives, they were pleasantly surprised at their ability to draw as well as tell their stories. This is the power of grassroot comics that it provides everyone with a way to tell their own issues through a creative medium. At the end of three days, 45 comics were drawn by the participants and the exhibition was held at DHAN Foundation premises. This was the second workshop organized by World Comics India in Tamil Nadu after the series was initiated in Chennai in August last year. Other such workshops have also been held in Bangalore, Lucknow, Noida and Hyderabad.