Folk song performances, plays entertain and educate residents of New Delhi’s shelter homes

Belting out songs on the glories of freedom fighters involved in the 1857 struggle in Harbola style — a Bundelkhandi folk tradition — Hardayal Kushwaha and his team

Belting out songs on the glories of freedom fighters involved in the 1857 struggle in Harbola style — a Bundelkhandi folk tradition — Hardayal Kushwaha and his team of artistes entertained 150 residents of a shelter home in Mahipalpur on a Sunday afternoon.

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With children looking on in awe, women clapping and some men humming along, the group performed Bundelkhandi and Rajasthani folk songs, as a part of the New Delhi district administration’s Manoratna Campaign, aimed at entertaining and educating residents of shelter homes.

Many of the residents lost their livelihoods during the lockdown from March-end to contain Covid-19, because of which it is important to ensure their physical and mental well-being, said officials associated with the initiative.

“Folk music and songs not only entertain people but also keep the listener mentally happy, which makes it more relevant in these hard times of the coronavirus pandemic. Other than Bundelkhandi, we also perform folk songs of other regions, including Rajasthani, Bhojpuri, Kumaoni and Garwali scores. We have also improvised folk songs to spread awareness about the Covid-19 among people living in shelter homes and quarantine centres,” said Kushwaha, a member of a 15-member professional folk artist group named Bargad.

Kushwaha said that the group tells people to fight the pandemic with the same spirit and unity exhibited by the freedom fighters.

Under the campaign, cultural activities such as street play on Covid-19, yoga sessions and motivational marches by volunteers are organised. Officials of the district administration have also composed a ‘Corona song’ that they sing every day to raise awareness.

Tanvi Garg, district magistrate, New Delhi, said Covid-19 has created a multitude of issues and, disrupted the physical and mental well-being of the citizens, prompting them to start the initiative. “The initiative aims at spreading positivity and happiness in this hour of crisis through numerous activities, ranging from organising yoga sessions to cultural activities in shelter homes on a regular basis. The response has been encouraging, especially to the musical performances of a variety of folk songs, in which the residents actively participated and enjoyed the performances while maintaining social distance. We are looking forward to having similar activities until all residents are safely sent back to their home towns,” Garg said.

The New Delhi district has seven shelter homes, where around 850 migrants who could not return to their home towns due to nationwide lockdown, are living. These shelter homes are located in Mahipalpur, RK Puram, Kendriya Vidhyalaya Naraina, Delhi Cantonment and Gole Market, besides a quarantine centre in Pusa Institute, which has 40 residents.

At present, there 352 Covid-19 positive cases and four containment zones — Pillanji Village, Israel Camp Rangpuri, EA Block and Budh Vihar in Inderpuri — in the district.

Nitin Shakya, the district’s coronavirus nodal officer, who is also supervising the Manoratna Campaign, said that besides folk songs, yoga sessions and physical training sessions are also being held at the shelter homes.

“Yoga not only gives physical strength, but also helps in clearing the mind. Currently, we are imparting yoga sessions to inmates with the help of civil defence volunteers and NGOs. We will soon rope in professional yoga trainers to conduct exercises on a regular basis and in a better manner. We have also prepared a Covid-19 song, which is sung by the civil servants of New Delhi DM office at all the shelter homes and quarantine facility every day to make people aware of the virus and safeguard them,” Shakya said.

Shakya said that besides entertaining residents, they are also informing them of the ‘dos and dont’s’ during the pandemic through such exercises. Plays, about the virus and precautions to be taken to control its spread, are being performed every day, said officials, adding that people are told about the right way to wash hands, importance of maintain social distancing, use of masks and gloves, and to cover their mouth with a cloth while coughing or sneezing.

Residents of the shelter homes welcomed the move, saying the programmes help them maintain a good spirit as well as provide a better understanding of Covid-19.

“Music makes us feel good. Through such activities, we remain occupied for a good part of the day and don’t feel that we have been left alone or stranded hundreds of kilometres away from homes. Not only this, but we are also told about coronavirus disease, its symptoms and preventions through folk music, street plays and general counselling,” Satyendra Tiwari, a resident of the Mahipalpur shelter home said. He used to work at a restaurant in the city but could not return his home town of Mughalsarai in Uttar Pradesh, due to lockdown.

Mukesh Kumar, a resident of the Gole Market shelter home, also a migrant from UP, said the initiatives help them pass the time and remain “mentally fit.”

“If anyone is confined to a building for a long time, the person will start becoming mentally distressed. But activities like folk songs, music, yoga and plays on coronavirus help us in being positive and happy. It is a good time pass. Man laga rahta hai (We remain mentally occupied),” Kumar said.

Nimesh Desai, the director of the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Science (IHBAS), said that such initiatives are necessary for the mental and physical well-being of occupants of shelter homes, amid the lockdown. IHBAS has been working closely with the government to assess the mental fitness of people living in shelter homes during the lockdown.

“These promotive programmes help in boosting the morale of occupants of shelter homes. Such traditional methods (folk songs and music) will register better results, in terms of keeping them mentally fit and happy. Such efforts would not only cheer them up but also support them in maintaining their resilience,” Desai said.