Script:
Prakash Garud is a master of an ancient art. He has a doctorate in theatre, but Prakash is a puppeteer, and even runs a puppetry training school. Now his passion for this unique art form is taking a new direction, in the fight against child labour.
Prakash Garud, Puppeteer
Puppet shows are designed and meant for small audiences. It’s effective also only in intimate spaces, as puppets can say daring things. The puppeteer is behind the screen and can’t be blamed for any of those statements. People are very curious about what we show and what we say. It’s all new to them.
As part of its Child Labour eradication project in India, made possible in part by Italian funding, the ILO turned to the puppeteers for help. The ILO wrote a training manual with the key issues, which the puppeteers used to develop stories for the puppet performances in the local language.
Prakash Garud
Essentially, the message of the plays is that one should not tolerate child labour. The people who send their kids to work are equally responsible for encouraging child labour as the ones who employ them. Our scripts make this point, that both sections of the society are responsible. And secondly, we emphasize the ‘right to education’ for every child. That’s actually a responsibility of the entire society.
The project is also providing productive work for artist like Kalaj Natraraj. He was working on child labour eradication programme for the ILO, and got caught up in the magic of the puppet show. He learned the art form and has been performing ever since.
Kalaj Natraraj, Puppeteer
The audience relates to the characters, and they feel for the children in the play as if they were their own children. They immediately get the message to send their own children to school.
The puppet shows have been so popular that the training manual developed by the ILO has now been used in many districts across India. Both children and teachers have been trained to use puppets to spread the word about eradicating child labour.
Thanks to the ILO’s initiative, the message of eradicating child labour can be delivered very effectively through the medium of puppetry… while at the same time revitalizing an ancient art form.