Urdu park at Jama Masjid surrounded by green trees with a large playground for the children is one of those places, situated at the edge of the old city where the destitute women and children have been put up in a shelter. This is a consequences of demolishing slums along the side of the Yamuna bank since 1975 and also the outcome of women from different parts of the country are forced to leave their families for domestic violence and lack of physical, financial and emotional security and eventually become homeless.
Technically these women who lives at the shelter in Urdu Park are ‘single’, they are seldom alone and carry multiple burdens associated with previous and current relationships that have exploited their freedom and compromised their health and physical and mental security. Sometimes the issues of health become so grave that it threatens their survival, especially infants. The main occupation of these women is begging.
The artists are primarily exploring at two ways of developing space in collaboration with women at the shelter
> How art play a vital role in changing opinion and perspective and build up a sense of responsibility within the group to shape up a community. > How the space Urdu Park is to be materially ‘reformed’ – i.e., restructured and adapted for new usage
> The collective decision-making process with regard to such ‘reform’, incorporating the opinions, needs and (as far as possible) the demands of multiple claimants to the ‘shared space’.
Duration: 2015-Present
Supported by: Art Reach
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