Nukkad Natak

Event Name: Nukkad Natak on “Prevention on Sexual Harassment”

Objective: To spread awareness about Child labour through a dedicated performance.

Outcome: The members learned how to work as a team. All of them voluntarily agreed to step out of their comfort zones, thus showing initiative, enthusiasm, and acting skills to make this act successful.

The Nukkad Natak was performed on 19th February, 2024 at Amphithreater from 5:30 pm onwards. As anticipated by the audience, a powerful performance was delivered by the club “Manoranjan,” the Drama Club of SCMS Hyderabad.

This Nukkad Natak was on “Child Labour,” and how prevalent, yet hidden, it is in our society. To portray the struggles faced by the kids who are thrust into a life of labour since their childhood, the performance consisted of 4 main characters: Chhotu (Kaushik Magotra), Raju (Abhinav Sarma), Chandu (Sangramjeet Das) and Varsha (Archita Agarwal).

The Nukkad Naatak chronicled the struggles of these 4 kids, starting with Chhotu who works at a Dhaba and gets harshly treated by the owner as well as oncoming customers.

Next, the performance showed the home life of Raju, a kid whose father is an alcoholic, forcing the kid to become the breadwinner of the household on his father’s behest.

The Nukkad Naatak progressed to show how kids working at a construction site is normalized, the contractor forcing Chandu to work even when he was hurt. And then this scene continued, with Raju’s father giving Raju to the contractor and forcing him to work on the site, so that he can take the money the kid makes.

The last heart-breaking scene of the child labourers consisted of Varsha working as a maid, her life completely different from her owner’s kid, Rahul (played by Pranesh Shankar), who is almost of the same age as her. Where he gets to go to school, she gets to watch him leave the house she is supposed to clean.

(Nukkad Naatak in Action)

(“Bal Majdoori,” The Personification of Child Labor)

(The Members of Manoranjan)

The Nukkad Naatak was scripted by Shailja Manya and Shreya Ghosh. The former of the duo was also the director and the latter was the assistant director. This incredible performance was performed by incredible artists. The “child labourers,” gave their all to showcase the severity of the situation. The Narrators, Abhijeet Gaud and Ruchirekha Das, amplified the kid’s voice by using their own. The rest of the actors — Almas Uddin Mallick, Shubhangini Pal, Pragyan Mishra, Ayushman Awasti, Naman Paul, and Rishita Singh — who played the roles of tormentors or of those trying to help, brought out the other side of the coin. If children are being forced to give up their childhood, then what are the adults doing?

And last but not the least, Shikhar Chand Sahu, the Head of Manoranjan, literally brought “Child Labour” to life by becoming the personification of it. He began the Nukkad Naatak by being amazed that people are paying attention to him, and by the end of it he joined the children’s cries of wanting to be freed.

Thus, giving a heartfelt ending to a powerful performance.