Guwahati, Aug. 19: Unicef in association with Anwesha, an NGO, will bring out comic books to create awareness on the rights of children.

Six books will be developed where issues like child labour and child abuse will be presented with the help of stories and illustrations.

To prepare the books, Unicef and Anwesha organised a three-day workshop in the city, which ended yesterday where resource persons finalised the topics required to be included in the set of books and the ways of presentation.

The president of Anwesha, Paresh Malakar, told The Telegraph that child labour, child trafficking, sexual abuse of children, violence-affected children, gender discrimination and parental care of children will be covered in the books.

"We have picked up some very pertinent issues in the context of the state. Children continue to be hit hard by conflict. They are being trafficked, sexual abuse of children are often in the news and child labour has refused to go away from society. Through the books we will try to create awareness on these issues," Malakar said.

The books will be published keeping in view the rights of children under United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child and the circumstances in Assam.

The convention is a human rights treaty which sets out civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. So far, 192 countries have ratified the convention, including India.

India ratified it in 1992 agreeing in principles all articles except with certain reservations on issues relating to child labour.

Malakar said the books will be ready by October. "They will be distributed among people through Unicef and such organisations working on the rights of children."

Before that Unicef and Anwesha will organise another workshop next month with resource persons to finalise the contents.

Malakar said persons like Gagan Chandra Adhikari, Bandita Phukan, Rashmi Narzari and Arup Kumar Dutta, who have been writing books on children, are involved in the project.

He said all the books would be in Assamese and they would consider translating them into other languages like Bodo if the demand arises.

Earlier, both Unicef and Anwesha had developed several sets of picture books for children on topics like education in tea garden areas and sanitation and hygiene.