Studying the law of the land can be cumbersome as the language used to draft them is hard to understand and there are numerous sections and sub-sections one needs to remember.
Taking advantage of this, advocates, lawyers and others associated with the legal system take the layman for a ride and therefore a considerable delay has been observed in the delivery of justice.
How does one circumvent the legal language to understand law? These questions swirled in Advocate Kanan Dhru’s mind as she grappled with clients and cases across different courts. She and her sister Kelly Dhru, who is also a lawyer, decided to address the issue in the form of comic books and collaborated with illustrators and designers to bring out ‘Lawtoons’.
How Did Lawtoons Start?
Kanan and Kelly Dhru are advocates from Ahmedabad. Kanan studied law from London School of Economics whereas Kelly, who is in the United States, is a law graduate from Oxford and Harvard.
The sisters decided to craft stories around various laws and present it in a comic book format. The duo started a crowd-funding project and joined hands with artists and illustrators from the prestigious National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad to add colour and emotion to their stories.
“During our interaction with children in schools we realised that they are quite keen on understanding their civil rights and the laws of the land, but the manner in which they are being taught leaves a lot to be desired. Thus Lawtoons has been scripted and framed in such a way that children can easily pick up on important aspects of laws and how it affects them in their day-to-day lives,” Kanan said.
Lawtoons was inaugurated on 23 November at the Oxford Bookstore, Connaught Place, New Delhi.
Sentinels of Democracy
Kanan is also working with the Election Commission (EC) as part of their programme to sensitise women voters and children. During an interaction with the top officials of the EC, Kanan introduced them to Lawtoons and the comic left a profound impression on them. Soon the EC commissioned Kanan to work on a comic book series that will inform people about the power of elections and their right to vote. Thus ‘Sentinels of Democracy’ came into being.
The comic book takes inspiration from real life incidents pertaining to elections and has seven stories covering the length and breadth of India. “In one of the stories, a politician lost the election by one vote. His wife, mother and the driver did not cast their votes which resulted in a shameful defeat. Such stories remind readers about the power of voting and how it can change the future of the country.”
The comic series has been officially endorsed by the EC. Gujarat votes again on 14 December for the second phase polling and the results will be declared on 18 December.
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