After the pandemic struck, no one was prepared to deal with its aftermath. Adults had to figure out ways to work from home, among other things. And most of them did eventually get into the groove. However, the most affected were children. Like all other problems, issues concerning children were overshadowed by the virus. However, one man pledged to make a difference. Snehal Rane devised an innovative idea to keep the torch alive for kids' issues. He ideated easy-to-understand digital posters, which reached over 15 lakh people daily.
Rane has been working in the field of child rights for 18 years now. Using social media platforms, he and his small team at a child rights NGO he works with created awareness with posters on laws relating to children, child rights, protection, and roles played by different stakeholders.
"The language of the law is heavy. We made easy-to-understand posters and coupled them with illustrations to make them interesting to read," says Rane, who designs these posters. He makes sure they have ample pictures, a bold font, and the messages are short so that people can read them and that the message also registers in minds of the reader. Since May 26, 2020, a poster is released every day without fail at 7 pm using various social media platforms. His team has now made over 440 posters.
The idea was to stop at 100 to 200 posters, but the warm response made them continue. "People wanted it to continue, saying that they knew it's 7 pm when they saw our poster of the day," he said. "Children are the most neglected and vulnerable. We didn't want their issues to take a back seat," Rane added.
The posters are designed in a way that people from all age groups can understand them. It is highly crucial that along with parents, police, the government, and those working with children, such as shelter home workers, children too gain insights from this initiative.
Rane also works with the police to train them to be child-friendly in cases involving children and dealing with children in conflict with the law.
bhavna.uchil@fpj.co.in
