As a medium, it becomes a reality check where the participants become active change-makers as opposed to passive observers, says Lokasish Saha
PUBG Mobile Season 2 began in India in May 2018 and from May to mid-August, there were 130 million players across 200 countries who competed for the Chicken Dinner. The gaming app has seen an enviable rise, difficult to compete with. The online mobile game has engaged the players in such a way that it has caused borderline addiction. That’s what games do, they engage people deeply. There are a few games that have been around for centuries now and were passed on from generation to generation. Who doesn’t remember the long nights of Ludo or Monopoly — or more commonly ‘Taash Patti’ (cards) played at every nook and corner of the country? The fun element about gaming is that one can experiment with them, from board games to mobile games to something experiential and real-time; there are no boundaries to the possibility of experimentation. It has a power to connect and bring people together.
If a game can do this, how exciting would it be to use it as a tool for social change. Just like online gaming, the journey of a game for social change is also based on the principle of participation and more directly the concept of experiencing action first hand. And if we could do that through a tool that gets adolescents and the youth ‘hooked’ on to ideas and frameworks that otherwise might be a step removed from everyday discussion for them like the Constitution of India or SDGs. Not only hooked but also live it and become jagruk nagriks or aware and active citizen. The first memory that comes to mind when I think of the Constitution is trying to learn the Preamble in Class VIII, “we, the People of India having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic, Republic” and then I mugged up other words such as Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. I ended up learning some words I did not really understand, got my marks and appreciation and it ended there. I am sure many of us experienced something similar, and then we grew up, life happened and not many of us went back to making sense of those words. Thus, using these words to bringing social change became an arena unknown to many.
Today we need to get the Constitution out of classrooms and into the streets where it can be lived. And because we will reach out to young people, we need to do it with modern interactive methods. Learning through games is a tried and tested pedagogy which we will harness to initiate social change. The term social change can be interpreted in a number of ways. According to MD Jenson, “Social change may be defined as modification in ways of doing and thinking of people.” According to Klimmt, research shows that outcome games for change model conceptually draw upon research in the fields of entertainment, education and cognitive and social psychology, and also examine how ‘serious’ or unconventional games can motivate, provide knowledge about and persuade a consumer to perform a socially-responsible behaviour.
Young people in the country now do not have the time or motivation to reflect beyond competition and materialism. Today, civic education for them through the formal system of education has stopped creating an impact. The other place that a young person engages with civic action is through laws, more through breach of it. This space is not felt as a safe space to engage. Therefore, suddenly society has no space for living a common story, a space where for example, the story of girl/boy from an urban space converges with the story of a girl/boy from a rural space. Games for social change can fill the gap by using positive psychology to build the agency of a young person to own the Constitution themselves by interacting with various aspects of it. Thus, a game on active citizenship will then assist in developing a vibrant citizenry which is curious and aware, engaging through experiments, inspired and enables civic action.
When it comes to narratives of social change, the language has a critical role to play. In a democracy, the Constitution is a source of building a ‘common’ language, a language to bring different people and perspectives together, and a source to ensure social inclusion. So if one were to create a game for young people that could be a ‘reality check’ through real life experiences, it could engage young people not in virtual reality but on ground and with the community and social action across four to five weeks. This reality check could be around understanding rights and duties stated in the Constitution or how to ensure sustainable communities through the SGDs. Every week after completing the action projects, the cohort of young people could come together and reflect on their experiences and connect the Constitution to the real world. It works because the adolescents and the youth, who are performing the tasks in the game, not only understand the notion of privilege, power and purity intellectually, but engage in real-life experiences, bringing the language of the Constitution to life. They build a personal connect to something that plays a role in their own lives.
Gaming as a medium has a huge role to play here unlike a textbook, as the game encourages the jagruks to use all of their senses and find a meaning for themselves. In a way, it becomes a ‘reality check’ where the participants become active change-makers as opposed to passive observers.
(The writer is co-convenor of a National level collective of youth-led and youth engaging organisation)
