Board Game that Creates Political Awareness
The Weeping Farm Board Game by Thukral and Tagra is a 40 minute game. In India, a farmer commits suicide every 40 minutes. And this is according to formal statistics. The aim of this game is to create awareness on the hardships of the women farmers, their everyday battle with survival and legal issues.
The reason I am writing this article is because Thukral and Tagra’s project fascinated me. I had always wanted to find an intersection between gaming and India’s class & caste issues. I felt as though PC games, something played on a device was not suited for it. And then I came across Weeping Farm and was struck by it.
It has all the elements I loved: gameplay, storytelling, design and illustrations, political thought, academic work, research, and a group involvement. And most importantly, it was India specific. Not to say it was inaccessible to other countries. They make it a point to go to other countries for exhibitions that create awareness of the game. It inspired me.
How the Board Game Works
A. The Persona
Each player gets a Persona card. It describes the kind of farmer you are, your current life situation, and if you get paid monthly or quarterly. It also has space for you to keep your Currency cards. Here is what the Persona card looks like:
B. Two Playing Decks
India has two cropping seasons: the Kharif season and the Rabi season. And thus, there are two Playing Decks, one for each season. The board of the game is organized in the same way.
The Kharif Season is from April to September. Rice, maize, pulses such as urad, moong dal and millets are among the key kharif crops. The Rabi Season is from October to March. Some examples of Rabi crops are: wheat, barley, oats, gram, mustard, linseed.
Each player picks a card from the Playing Deck one-by-one. On the Playing Card is a situation that the farmer is currently facing. It may ask the player to give money, receive money, take loan, or to perform some gestures. Here are a couple of examples:
C. The Game Board
The Game Board is made up of cloth and features the months that the farmers have to face, divided into the two farming seasons. It also has some scanner codes printed, relevant to the farming season, which the players can scan to read and learn more about the life of the women.
