Priya Anand

Priya Anand and her collaborator Rekha Abel are residents of Good Earth Malhar, an eco-friendly residential complex located in Kengeri Bangalore. It is home to over 150 families from diverse walks of life.   

This grant will enable them to create a platform for interaction between children of Malhar and those of the nearby labour camp that houses construction and domestic workers employed by the Malhar, and the neighbouring communities through various creative activities. They will include a map-making exercise wherein fifty to seventy children between the ages of eight and fourteen will come together to construct the maps of the neighbourhood. This mapping exercise is aimed at understanding the perspectives of children with respect to the surrounding environment given their different sociocultural and economic contexts. The exercise will be conducted at the labour camp and the government schools in the neighbourhoods of Dodabelle and Anchepalya.

Subsequently, Priya and Rekha will organise a half-day mela of reading books. They will display the maps created earlier by the children and hold storytelling sessions by them. The idea is to identify common and diverse perspectives and experiences of children and how they see themselves and their neighbours in the locality they live in. This initiative is envisaged as a pilot and precursor for a sustained programme with the neighbouring communities where the residents of Malhar hope to engage with the children in the surrounding villages through various educational and life skill programmes. The larger goal is to create an interactive forum where children from Malhar and those from the surrounding villages can connect.

The event will also include quiz sessions and activity-based games in English and Kannada. A select number of booksellers, who sell children’s books, will be invited to have their stalls at the event. The idea is to have a gift-a-book segment, where residents of the community can purchase books for children from the surrounding villages. A session with the parents of the children will also be held to share their experiences of living in the neighbourhood.  

The outcome of this project will be a mela of reading books and an exhibition of children’s maps of the neighbourhood. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be audiovisual documentation of the activities. The budget is commensurate with the proposal.

This project is made possible with support from India Foundation for the Arts, under the Project 560 programme and partnered by Citi India.