Comic Book Propaganda Goes Radioactive

A series of three pro-nuclear comics is being distributed around proposed nuclear plant sites

Last year, large-scale protests occurred at the proposed Jaitapur plant in Maharashtra and the Kudankulam plant in Tamil Nadu. The Central Government reasons that a greater thrust in nuclear power will help India meet its energy needs, but locals at the site of the proposed plants are unconvinced of their safety and concerned about the displacement they will cause. Now, the Central Government-run Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC) has come up with a novel way to win over locals—a series of three comics that show how a villager named Budhiya, riddled with fears of nuclear plants, becomes convinced of their safety and efficacy.

In the first installment, Ek Tha Budhiya, the character voices his concerns and gets a lesson in how safe and effective nuclear plants are. In the second, Budhiya Ki Seher, he visits one. By the third, Badal Gaya Budhiya, he has become a champion of nuclear energy.

Amritesh Srivastava, a communication manager at NPC, which conceptualised the series, says, “Atomic energy is a complex concept. Most people associate it only with disasters like Hiroshima-Nagasaki and now Fukushima. The idea was to communicate effectively and simply the benefits of nuclear energy to a lay person. A lot of falsehoods about nuclear energy have been spread among locals.

This is our way of dealing with those misconceptions.” Published in seven languages, the comics have been distributed around villages where nuclear plants are coming up. While the character is called Budhiya in Hindi, he is Ganpat in Marathi and Nathu in Tamil.

The story is set in a village called Jagdishpur, which Srivastava says is inspired by Jaitapur. “We have distributed at least 10 to 12 lakh copies through schools and colleges,” Srivastava says. “Our site officers also went house to house distributing [them]. The impact will soon be there to see.”