A three-day summer workshop for kids to benefit performing arts community

A three-day workshop is being organised for children in the Capital, which aims at bringing sustainable livelihood to over 5500 marginalised folk street performers of the city.

To celebrate the heritage of the city with folk artists from Delhi-NCR, Centre for New Perspectives (CNP) — a think tank that works on repositioning traditional skills of communities — is organising a workshop as part of one-year pilot programme to create sustainable livelihood for marginalised folk and street performers of the Capital. The three-day workshop to be held in Delhi from June 19, has been conceptualised by Navina Jafa and Shailaja Kathuria from CNP.

This summer workshop is being organised for children in the 10-14 age group in the Capital. (Portrait of mime artists, for representation only). (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Organised for children in the 10-14 age group, the summer workshop aims to offer personality development including leadership and communication skills. CNP has launched the one-year pilot program to create sustainable livelihoods for more than 5000 folk street performers, and for over 500 children visible on traffic lights in Delhi-NCR. With a meagre income, they are forced to take up other professions and form a part of Delhi’s urban poor.

“The idea of the program is to provide sustainability to the marginal communities and to make Delhi a UNESCO Creative City”

“We conducted a survey wherein we found that Delhi-NCR hosts to over 5500 families from the performing arts . And their skill income from the traditional skills ranges from Rs 800 to 8000 per month. And they are now substituting their income by leaving the traditional skills and adopting other professions. The idea of the program is to provide sustainability to the communities and is also aimed at making Delhi a UNESCO Creative City,” says VP, Navina Jafa.

She adds, “ We have adjoined the workshop with UNESCO’s initiative- Creative City network that says that every city has its own intangible heritage. We want to involve the young citizens of the city to understand the creative communities and to sensitise the young children of Delhi,on women as creative individuals.It will introduce children to versatility, role play through the medium by mime and magic,” says Navina who will also be conducting a session on womanhood, sustainability of heritage skills and reformating the idea of heritage walks.

While traditional mime artist Sapan Datta will take children through the art of mime, magician Ishamuddin Khan will present an array of magic tricks. Mountaineer, Chanda Bearwan and Ummul Kher, who cracked the UPSC exam, will speak on the theme of gender sensitisation and personality development.“They will meet one women every day who will speak on My Story, My Dream. Delhi is touted as a city unsafe for women yet it has many women heroes,” adds Navina.

Fore more details, log on to www.cnpindia.org