There is an interesting trend coming out of India, where people are using comics as a tool of development communication in remote regions and villages. Here's a report by Frederick Noronha.

Sharad Sharma runs one such initiative, and "his network called World Comics India held workshops in the remote areas of tribal Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Tamilnadu, and the North East. Charkha, which has been providing training to rural journalists since 1994, started using cartoons and comic strips in development communication in 1997. The Bangalore-based Communication for Development and Learning recently came out with a slim book titled 'Devtoons: Cartoons for Development'." World Comics is now coming out with a journal of such comics.

Trying to get my hands dirty while WorldChanging, I run the other such initiative. One of our stories, The Doppler Effect, deals impassionately with the Hindu-Muslim riots in Godhra (Gujarat) and The Towers Of Silence with the decline of Parsi population in India.