Soon, children’s favourite toon characters of Amar Chitra Katha — a best selling well-illustrated publication for kids in India — will be carrying forward Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of a Swachchh Bharat.
In an effort to catch the children young, the Urban Development Ministry on Wednesday inked a pact with Amar Chitra Katha to bring out a special 32-page edition of the popular comic book series with messages on sanitation and solid waste components.
To be distributed to school boards such as CBSE, the comics will also have real life stories, cleanliness ranking of cities and information about the ambassadors of the mission. The book will be made available in both English and Hindi.
Post agreement, Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu, said “Given that youth and students are one of the biggest change agents for any social transformation, the comic book would aim to engage with them in an innovative manner and spread the message of cleanliness thorough the medium of comic book characters.
“I hope the comic book goes on to inspire children to take steps and create a long-lasting impact on the cleanliness of their homes, schools, neighborhoods and eventually their cities. I hope that this initiative will push the Swachh Bharat Mission one step further towards making Swachh Bharat a ‘jan andolan’.”
The move comes a day after the Ministry announced its plans to launch an awareness campaign ‘Asli Tarakki’ wherein 450 select youth will act as motivators to promote awareness about the need for sanitation in five cities in NCR region.
The Amar Chitra Katha comic book would comprise a series of inspirational stories from the mission, cleanliness rankings of cities, the public figures and ambassadors, environmental impact, and stories of individuals and organizations that can inspire children to the concept of ‘Swachhata’.
Further, there will be an interactive workbook of tips and tricks which children can use to clean their own areas. This will also provide a section about how to organize community cleanliness drives and what other things they can do to make a remarkable impact on their immediate surroundings.
The Ministry will also distribute the books through national school boards like CBSE, Kendriya Vidyalaya-KVS and Navodaya Vidyalay-NVS.
Amar Chitra Katha has over 400 titles in 20 languages and a national distribution across all major book retailers, hundreds of small bookstores and thousands of vendors, more than 1.5 million copies are sold every year.