Using theatre to spread legal awareness

September 14, 2013 11:41 am | Updated June 02, 2016 12:03 pm IST - VISAKHAPATNAM:

Students of Damodaram Sanjeevayya National Law University performing a street play on corruption on the beach road in Visakhapatnam on Friday. Photo: K.R. Deepak

Students of Damodaram Sanjeevayya National Law University performing a street play on corruption on the beach road in Visakhapatnam on Friday. Photo: K.R. Deepak

Students of Damodaram Sanjeevaiah National Law University here formed an association, ‘Kalagya’, under the Legal Aid Cell of the university to promote street plays and spread legal awareness among the public.

They created street plays with different themes and issues that concern people and society. These street plays would be useful to the university when it takes up a campaign on the issues in future, said a faculty member.

Final on Beach Road

Preliminary rounds of the competition were held on the university campus and the final was held on the Beach Road opposite the Visakha Museum late on Friday afternoon where University students along with curious passers-by watched.

One group presented a street play on how deep rooted corruption was in the country and another group’s play was on the plight of girls in the country.

While the first was in Hindi except for a brief introduction and conclusion in Telugu, the second was a mix of English and Telugu and hence was received better by passers-by.

Message goes down well

Students of this group planned the street play well, showing incidents from past to the present and drove home the message well. It started with a child marriage, replica of ‘Puttadibomma Poornamma’ saga, a girl forced out of education to become a servant, abuse of a girl and an attempt to force abortion on a mother to get rid of a female foetus, which is resisted by the mother and the doctor and her husband being held by the police. A micro phone would have attracted more people to this street play.

In the first street play on corruption, the students explained how every area could be ‘managed’ with money. This was adjudged the best play by the judges. A faculty member later said that the street plays would be translated into local languages depending on the need.

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