Chandigarh, Aug 26: Children living in slums in and around this city have unleashed the power of street theatre to teach everyone about two big dangers - plastic use and drug addiction.

Coordinated by the government`s North Zone Cultural Centre based here and local NGO Theatre Age, the children have prepared two dance dramas to create awareness about these serious hazards.

"Our administration does a lot of work to raise awareness against these evils among the city residents. But many times people living in the suburbs or rural areas remain untouched by such programmes."

"Therefore, our aim is to reach such areas and educate people right at their doorstep through musical dance dramas," Zulfiqar Khan, president of Theatre Age, said.

"The problems of polythene and drug addiction are deep-rooted in rural areas. Also, lack of awareness and low literacy rates are the main problems. So our young artistes have prepared two musical dance dramas to create awareness about these serious hazards."

The first play, "Poly Don", narrates the story of demon polythene - how it survives and attacks society and ultimately how we can conquer Poly Don with the use of paper and cloth bags.

The second play, "Giraft" (the clutches) is a soul-stirring story about a young boy of an affluent family, who, deprived of affection from his family, falls into the clutches of drug addicts and ends up in the death trap of drugs.

"Music and dance are substantial ingredients of our plays to attract spectators of all age groups. We have performed in various slum areas and villages adjoining Chandigarh," said Vinod Azad, choreographer of the plays and a member of Theatre Age.

"We have got an overwhelming response to our plays. We are now planning to take these plays to other states soon," said Khan.

IANS