New Delhi: A young Indian’s first brush with the country’s Constitution and polity is during a Civics class in school. When he or she grows up, it becomes clear that what is taught in classrooms is far removed from the reality.
Perhaps this is why, classes on the Constitution are moving out of the classrooms, leaving behind the jargon-loaded textbook lessons.
Crash Course in Constitution
Trinamool Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien had earlier released a reference book on the Constitution to make it more accessible and relatable. The lawmaker and quiz master is now planning to come out with a new edition.
"In a democracy, the Constitution is gospel. A few years ago, we decided to do a kind of handy reference book for students on the Constitution. The response was very good. Many of my colleagues in Parliament also asked me for a copy, saying it would be useful. Maybe it is time to come out with the new edition," O’Brien tells News18.com
Demystifying the Constitution With Games
In Delhi, parents of 16-year-old Mohan don’t mind their son learning about the Constitution from a screen. He doesn’t have to cram the jargon to be diligently copied onto an answer sheet during exams. Instead, he is actually learning about his country’s Constitution with help from dazed cats, angry Bollywood stars and notes flying on the screen.
These light elements make the Constitution relatable to him. Mohan is following Meghnad S’s show Consti-tuition which explains about Bills, Schedules, Budget and Parliamentary Committees among other things enshrined in the Constitution.
The show was made with the aim of educating citizens about the basic concepts of how our democracy is structured. Written by Vikram Bhattacharya and Shibesh Mehrotra, the team is led by Abhinandan Sekri.
“We just tried to make it relatable, funny and give a contemporary twist to it,” says Meghnad.
During this conceptualisation, the team followed a few basic rules — “Do not insult, don’t get personal, don’t care about political parties, just care and talk about the systemic problems we can see.”
Joining them in taking the Constitution out of the classrooms is Samvidhn Live!, an initiative by a group of organisations under Youth Collective. When they teach about the Constitution they bring in the dice, chessboards and cards.
A survey — ‘Living the Samvidhan Survey’ — conducted by them last year among 18,000 people in 16 states revealed that the average score on constitutional awareness was dismally low at 36%.
On the other hand, a group of 500 young people, who participated in a game conducted by the collective fared much better in the same survey, scoring 76% at the end of a five-week programme.
“That took them way beyond their books, turning the world into their classroom. It is important because we have to take the concept out of the rulebook, connect it with the young generation so that they apply it in life,” said Bappaditya Mukherjee, a board member of the youth collective.
The initiative has found success outside the national capital too. A young girl from Kolkata learnt the importance of Right to Education after spending time with a Below Poverty Line family living under a flyover.
In 2016, almost 500 jagruks (aware citizens) took part in the drive in their respective cities, towns and villages.
In five weeks, almost 1,500 social and self-action tasks were undertaken such as spending a night in a homeless shelter, organising a health camp, reversing gender roles, spending time with religious leaders to truly understand freedom of religion. At the Constitution Club in Delhi, the 40 inspiring Jagruks met senior politicians and stakeholders to share their findings and urge them for better constitutional literacy.
Constitution Without Politics
A key rule for this collective is to steer clear of politics. So how do they do it? "There’s actually an easy answer to that —follow the Constitution of India… We stay away from the trap of electoral politics,” said Mukherjee.
“We managed to somewhat come off as unbiased throughout the whole series. We scraped away the political layer deliberately and carefully, only using it as a humour vehicle so that they can focus on the systemic issues. It worked wonderfully and got them positive feedback from all across the ideological spectrum,” said Meghnad.
“I’ll repeat our show’s mantra here — Policy isn’t funny, but the people definitely are!” said Meghnad.
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