Sharing the stage

From the time that it was founded in 1976,Lokdoot has been producing plays,puppet shows and street songs to educate people on a range of issues. So,a play like ‘Jaan Pehchan’ is performed at a new building site,in order to break the ice with the labourers,and to instil in them faith that their children would be in safe hands.

Lokdoot is a part of the NGO,Mobile Creches,set up in 1969 by Meera Mahadevan,as a crèche cum day care centre on building sites for children of construction workers–usually migrant labourers. Later it began to include children in the slums and urban settlements too.

Indu Bhsain,one of the senior most members of Lokdoot,has been associated with Mobile Creches since 1971,says,“While working with children,we realised the need for a platform where people participate collectively as a community. Meera was the one who thought of this idea.”

Amrita Jain,treasurer and advocacy consultant at the NGO says,“If you give people a lecture about the importance of Pulse Polio drops,they wouldn’t understand it that well,but if you bring out the same message in the form of a play,in their language,its entertaining and educating at the same time.”

Lokdoot’s members are now mostly youth from urban settlements who have also been the alumni of Mobile Creches. At present,it has 30-35 members. The group charges a professional fee for each performance.

Govind Kumar,25,a member of Lokdoot says,“I have been with Lokdoot for about six years now. Theatre was an integral part of the training provided at Mobile Creches,and I was active in it. I came here after an orientation programme and was given training.”

Lokdoot conducts around 15-20 performances in a month and has proved to be an effective way to communicate with the community. But it doesn’t come without challenges. Basanti,a member of the theatre group,recalls an incident where the team was performing a play on the issue of alcohol abuse and a man who was in an inebriated state tried to disrupt the performance repeatedly and said that his wife must have turned these people against him.

As a group,Lokdoot is continuously evolving. Says Amrita,“People understand better through this medium,they quickly catch on to the message. Also the questions and answers regarding a particular issue are inbuilt in the play which leads to internalisation.”